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TSMC and GlobalFoundries settle legal dispute, sign cross-licensing deal

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and competitor GlobalFoundries on Monday inked an agreement to cross-license certain patents related to semiconductor technology, resolving a two-month-old multi-jurisdictional legal dispute that threatened the businesses of customers like TSMC partner Apple.

Under terms of what is being billed as a "broad" global patent cross-licensing deal, TSMC and GlobalFoundries will license each other's existing worldwide semiconductor patents, as well as future intellectual property filed in the next 10 years, in a bid to halt hostilities.

The solution allows companies reliant on TSMC and GlobalFoundries silicon to freely access the chipmakers' technologies and services. Apple, for example, is no longer in danger of being subject to a potential ban on iOSM devices operating on A-series chip fabricated in TSMC's foundry.

"The semiconductor industry has always been highly competitive, driving the players to pursue innovation that enriched the lives of millions of people around the world. TSMC has invested tens of billions of dollars towards innovation to reach our leading position today." said Sylvia Fang, General Counsel for TSMC. "The resolution is a positive development that keeps our focus on advancing the needs of our customers for technologies that will continue to bring innovation to life, enabling the entire semiconductor industry to thrive and prosper."

GlobalFoundries in August filed multiple complaints against TSMC, Apple and other associated companies for alleged infringement of 13 U.S. patents and three German patents covering semiconductor manufacturing processes. Lawsuits were filed in Delaware, Texas and Germany, while a complaint was lodged with the U.S. International Trade Commission.

TSMC vowed to fight the legal barrage, saying it was confident that the allegations were "baseless." Apple's chip supplier answered back in September with its own set of patent infringement lawsuits filed in Germany, Singapore and the U.S.

With a steady stream of orders coming in from Apple and other big-name technology sector players, TSMC is considered the world's largest contract chipmaker. The company's latest and most advanced chip, Apple's A13 Bionic, is thought to be fabricated on a special 7nm process dubbed "N7 Pro."



12 Comments

wizard69 21 Years · 13358 comments

I have to think Global realized just how stupid their actions where.  They literaLly attacked a company that their customers had to turn to.   The big one being AMD.  I can’t imagine AMD was all too happy about remaining work at Global considering how far behind Global is.  Makes me wonder if Apple was expressing private thoughts about the wisdom of supporting anything Global manufactured.  

It is pretty simple really, Global lost business due to getting behind.   They simply don’t have a bleeding edge solution which means business goes elsewhere.  

melgross 20 Years · 33624 comments

The whole thing is interesting. I wonder what TSMC patents GF will be able to use to seriously advance their production. Remember that they gave up on fabbing anything below 12nm a year ago. This won’t help them do that. $12 billion in funds would, but they won’t get it.

chaicka 14 Years · 257 comments

Indeed...The semi-con industry has always been different from the rest of tech industry. They push forward with innovation instead of suing each other. It’s common to have step on each others’ IP along the way. If this has ended up following through the ‘suing’ route, it will open up a whole lot of shit. 

mdriftmeyer 20 Years · 7395 comments

melgross said:
The whole thing is interesting. I wonder what TSMC patents GF will be able to use to seriously advance their production. Remember that they gave up on fabbing anything below 12nm a year ago. This won’t help them do that. $12 billion in funds would, but they won’t get it.

Each has IP the other needs. TSMC likely needs access to the IBM IP GF bought to meet it's 5nm and 3nm goals. GF is focusing on areas TMSC is not. TSMC can only produce so much output that it will have to eventually call upon the likes of GF to offset demand it cannot meet. I await the new ``process nodes'' GF starts up that will most certainly happen.

blastdoor 15 Years · 3594 comments

TSMC can only produce so much output that it will have to eventually call upon the likes of GF to offset demand it cannot meet. 

????

This isn't the game Monopoly, with a limited number of hotels that must be shared by all the players. TSMC is perfectly able to build as many fabs as it needs to. If Taiwan runs out of space, they can build them in Texas or tons of other places (and they should seriously do that anyway for risk diversification reasons). 

More broadly... The history of the semiconductor industry has been one of firms dropping out of the race to the next node, as every next node is more expensive than the last. IBM, Texas Instruments, Motorola, AMD, and DEC are some examples that come to mind. The survivors have been the ones with enough volume (profit) to fund the next node. 

When GF gave up on 7nm, it brought us down to just three -- TSMC, Intel, and Samsung. 

Intel used to be the leader because they were the biggest fish in the biggest pond -- the PC market. Now the PC market looks like a small pond next to the ocean of mobile, and TSMC is the biggest fish in this much larger market. 

The big question in my mind is -- who drops out next? Intel or Samsung?