A major Chinese flash memory chip maker opened a patent lawsuit against Micron Technology Inc., reportedly accusing it of infringing on several of its patents.
The suit, by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) against Micron
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was filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. According to media reports, the Chinese company said rival Micron has infringed on eight patents.
Micron sells dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips used for smartphone servers and computers. A leading memory chip maker, YMTC accused the U.S. company of not paying what it should to use the company’s inventions.
YMTC was added to a U.S. government export blacklist late last year, and Beijing, in turn, earlier this year banned China firms from buying Micron products after a cybersecurity review, saying the U.S. company’s products posed a major national security risk.
Micron’s fiscal fourth-quarter results, reported in late September, came in better than expected, but the company said it it was still seeing headwinds from the China restrictions on its products.
MarketWatch has reached out to Micron and YMTC for comment. In a statement provided to Reuters, YMTC confirmed the lawsuit had been filed “for infringement of our company’s patents related to the design, manufacture and operation of 3D NAND technology,” it said. “We are confident that this matter will be resolved swiftly.”
Shares of Micron are up 50% so far in 2023.
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