Intel Accused of Infringing FinFET Patents of the Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

[Pickles von Brine]

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Today we are finding out that Intel has allegedly infringed FinFET patents of Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On July 28th, the patent review committee has heard an application that accuses Intel of violating a patent 201110240931.5 commonly referred to as FinFET patent. The patent dates back to 2011, and it comes from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly Microelectronics Institute. The Chinese patent holders are asking for as much as 200 million yuan, which roughly translates to 28,664,380 US dollars. 

Um... What? Why now? How long as Intel been using FinFET and now there is a lawsuit over it? Honetsly, this just smells fishy to me. Tin-foil at side of me says this is a ploy to extort money or possible IP out of the company. Then again, I don't really know enough to properly comment. 

Source

[5x5]

Brb, buying intel stock.

[Levent]

Sounds like CCP creating shit on Intel. I highly doubt anything will come out of it, except for the fact maybe intel paying a small sum. FinFET has been in use since Ivy Bridge? and I know IVB was being developed in early 2007. Definitely smells forced/made up shit.

[Korben]

Sounds to me like another step in the US vs. China trade war...and tbh, $30M doesn't sound much to me (for a company like Intel). It's bit like a pinprick, but since Intel is in rough waters currently... I doubt it, though.

[porina]

The ask of 28M is loose change. I wonder if they hope for a quick payout to get it over with.

[LAwLz]

I am by no means a lawyer but looking over the patent it seems pretty legit.

The patent seems to describe FinFET pretty accurately, and it was filed about a year before Intel started using FinFET in their products.

 

 

But as I was writing this I did a quick Google and realized FinFET has been around since 1998 so it's not exactly a new idea. Also, Intel did a demo of their "tri-gate" (FinFET) transistors in May 2011, and this patent was filed in august 2011. So Intel had already made public demos of their transistors before this patent was filed.

 

 

All in all, I think this seems like a money grab from some random company.

[thorhammerz]

33 minutes ago, porina said:

The ask of 28M is loose change. I wonder if they hope for a quick payout to get it over with.

29 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

All in all, I think this seems like a money grab from some random company.

 

I'd think of it less as a settlement, and more as an arbitrary tax rate on foreign companies operating within China, to be tacked on as political needs dictate.

 

Today it is 28MM over some years-old tech from a (pseudo) private entity. Tomorrow it may well be 280MM from a regulator on pain of losing market access to the country.

[asquirrel]

I'll view Chinese IP lawsuits as meritorious sometime around the point that CCP doesn't REQUIRE businesses to manufacture their goods in China in order to sell them in China. Until then, :laughs in IP theft:

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, asquirrel said:

I'll view Chinese IP lawsuits as meritorious sometime around the point that CCP doesn't REQUIRE businesses to manufacture their goods in China in order to sell them in China. Until then, :laughs in IP theft:

Which is funny because both the EU and the US are both considering implementing similar regulations and rulings as China. That for example Huawei might be allowed to sell equipment if they manufacture it in the EU or US. But I guess it's only bad when China does it. (Worth noting that the Huawei manufacturing in EU/US situation was only a suggestion and I don't think it has lead anywhere, at least not yet).

 

China: We don't allow US made products in our networks! We can't trust foreigners!

Everyone: Buu China bad! They don't trust us!

 

US: We don't allow Chinese made products in our networks!

Everyone: Yay so great that we banned these foreign products! We can't trust foreigners! China bad!

 

 

India has already implemented similar rules, but India is basically China 2.0 at this point so that's no surprise. What is surprising is that nobody bats an eye when India does it.

[asquirrel]

1 hour ago, LAwLz said:

Which is funny because both the EU and the US are both considering implementing similar regulations and rulings as China. That for example Huawei might be allowed to sell equipment if they manufacture it in the EU or US. But I guess it's only bad when China does it. (Worth noting that the Huawei manufacturing in EU/US situation was only a suggestion and I don't think it has lead anywhere, at least not yet).

 

China: We don't allow US made products in our networks! We can't trust foreigners!

Everyone: Buu China bad! They don't trust us!

 

US: We don't allow Chinese made products in our networks!

Everyone: Yay so great that we banned these foreign products! We can't trust foreigners! China bad!

 

 

India has already implemented similar rules, but India is basically China 2.0 at this point so that's no surprise. What is surprising is that nobody bats an eye when India does it.

Lmao. Nice strawman argument. Need some crows to go along with it?

[Trik'Stari]

8 hours ago, Levent said:

Sounds like CCP creating shit on Intel. I highly doubt anything will come out of it, except for the fact maybe intel paying a small sum. FinFET has been in use since Ivy Bridge? and I know IVB was being developed in early 2007. Definitely smells forced/made up shit.

I want to say "THEY are accusing someone else of intellectual property infringement? That's rich.".

[mr moose]

This is not a trade war thing because those are rookie numbers.   I mean seriously rookie numbers.  $30M is peanuts.

[Trik'Stari]

40 minutes ago, mr moose said:

This is not a trade war thing because those are rookie numbers.   I mean seriously rookie numbers.  $30M is peanuts.

Is it though? For our companies no, not at all, but for companies based in China and completely Chinese owned?

 

Everything about this screams "Amateurish", at best.

[mr moose]

1 minute ago, Trik'Stari said:

Is it though? For our companies no, not at all, but for companies based in China and completely Chinese owned?

 

Everything about this screams "Amateurish", at best.

If it was a trade war thing the CCP would have simply used a tariff.  No court case, no leaving the message to journalists to interpret and so on.  They wiped nearly $200M from aussie farmers in 2 weeks with one tariff,  this reeks of a small company just trying their hand at settling out of court for a small profit.

[Trik'Stari]

2 minutes ago, mr moose said:

If it was a trade war thing the CCP would have simply used a tariff.  No court case, no leaving the message to journalists to interpret and so on.  They wiped nearly $200M from aussie farmers in 2 weeks with one tariff,  this reeks of a small company just trying their hand at settling out of court for a small profit.

I wasn't aware there was that much value in farming unreasonably deadly and terrifying animals.

 

(So many possible jokes, that was the best one.)

 

I agree, but it seems a bit.... I can imagine the judge looking at the information before him, and looking at them being like "really?.... You really want to do this?"

[Salv8 (sam)]

apple is dealing with the same thing:

my bullshit detector is going off right now and i think *puts on a tin foil hat* they are using both of these pattern "infringements" to extort money out of the US economy.

together it's about 1.69 billion US dollars combined... why they need it i don't know, maybe covid-19 hit them harder then they have reported and might use the funds to stop the virus?

i can only speculate but my tin foil hat is definitely getting some use today:

[soldier_ph]

2 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

apple is dealing with the same thing:

my bullshit detector is going off right now and i think *puts on a tin foil hat* they are using both of these pattern "infringements" to extort money out of the US economy.

together it's about 1.69 billion US dollars combined... why they need it i don't know, maybe covid-19 hit them harder then they have reported and might use the funds to stop the virus?

i can only speculate but my tin foil hat is definitely getting some use today:

-Image Snip-

Yeah it's funny and od to me that both lawsuits are coming out/being reported on the same day like it was planned or something. Maybe the CCP is short on money, who knows.

[mr moose]

7 minutes ago, Trik'Stari said:

I wasn't aware there was that much value in farming unreasonably deadly and terrifying animals.

 

(So many possible jokes, that was the best one.)

 

I agree, but it seems a bit.... I can imagine the judge looking at the information before him, and looking at them being like "really?.... You really want to do this?"

Australia's food export value is about $45B.  $200M is a drop in the ocean comparatively, but it was a political message not an attempt to fix a trade problem.  SO yeah, lots of dangerous animals and plants are exported to try and kill the rest of the world, it only seems fair from our perspective, we are just trying to even the odds of dying from holding what looks like a cute little cuddle toy.

 

 

 

[Trik'Stari]

17 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Australia's food export value is about $45B.  $200M is a drop in the ocean comparatively, but it was a political message not an attempt to fix a trade problem.  SO yeah, lots of dangerous animals and plants are exported to try and kill the rest of the world, it only seems fair from our perspective, we are just trying to even the odds of dying from holding what looks like a cute little cuddle toy.

-snip

I can think of quite a few targets for export that you guys have neglected. None of which I can safely mention here lol.

[CarlBar]

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

Australia's food export value is about $45B.  $200M is a drop in the ocean comparatively, but it was a political message not an attempt to fix a trade problem.  SO yeah, lots of dangerous animals and plants are exported to try and kill the rest of the world, it only seems fair from our perspective, we are just trying to even the odds of dying from holding what looks like a cute little cuddle toy.

 

 

 

 

Haven't seen that specific meme before, (though i approve). What is it anyway?

[mr moose]

7 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

 

Haven't seen that specific meme before, (though i approve). What is it anyway?

Hes a western pygmy possum.   I believe the photo has been shopped, however most possums in Australia are vicious little buggers with sharp teeth (they often decapitate cats) so it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't shopped that much.

[Pickles von Brine]

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

Hes a western pygmy possum.   I believe the photo has been shopped, however most possums in Australia are vicious little buggers with sharp teeth (they often decapitate cats) so it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't shopped that much.

Freaking everything in australia will try to kill you. Your spiders are so big they have freaking health bars!

Original photo so you guys know

[mr moose]

12 minutes ago, Pickles - Lord of the Jar said:

Freaking everything in australia will try to kill you. Your spiders are so big they have freaking health bars!

Original photo so you guys know

looks like they used a spotted quoll for the photoshop.

 

https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/quolls

 

[Dabombinable]

5 hours ago, mr moose said:

Australia's food export value is about $45B.  $200M is a drop in the ocean comparatively, but it was a political message not an attempt to fix a trade problem.  SO yeah, lots of dangerous animals and plants are exported to try and kill the rest of the world, it only seems fair from our perspective, we are just trying to even the odds of dying from holding what looks like a cute little cuddle toy.

 

 

 

*see's 2 tiny bite marks, see's tiny snake nearby "lol, that tiny thing bit me?" 5 minutes later..."I don't feel that good, call an ambulance"*

[RejZoR]

That little critter is most likely venomous anyway lol. Queue in the coffin dance