[News] Micron and Fujian Jinhua Reach Global Settlement Concerning IP Theft Lawsuits

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As one of the key cases in the US-China tech war, American memory giant Micron Technology had mend relations with China. Recently, Micron said a global settlement agreement with state-backed competitor Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit (JHICC) concerning intellectual property theft lawsuits.

According to Bloomberg’s report, on December 24th, Micron has indicated that it has reached a global settlement agreement with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit. A Micron spokesperson stated in an email, “The two companies will each globally dismiss their complaints against the other party and end all lawsuits between them.” However, no further information or details were provided.

In March of this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China conducted a cybersecurity review of Micron products, and in May, it cited cybersecurity concerns as the reason for prohibiting Chinese operators of “critical infrastructure” from using Micron’s chips.

Micron stated that the Chinese restrictions have affected approximately half of its sales related to Chinese customers. Accordingly, Micron derives about a quarter of its global revenue from China and Hong Kong.

Reportedly, industry insiders believe that following the settlement between the two parties, it is not anticipated to have a significant impact on the upward trend of memory prices.

Appeared to have attempted to pacify Beijing, Micron announced in June an increased investment in China, planning to invest over CNY 4.3 billion in the next few years in its packaging and testing facility located in Xi’an, China.

Micron has decided to acquire the packaging equipment of Powertech Semiconductor (Xi’an), planning to construct new facilities at the Micron Xi’an plant and introduce state-of-the-art and high-performance packaging and testing equipment.

In 2017, Micron filed a lawsuit in the United States against Fujian Jinhua and its Taiwanese partner United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), accusing these two companies of stealing trade secrets related to Micron’s memory.

A year later, as the U.S. Department of Justice intensified actions against China in economic espionage cases, Fujian Jinhua and UMC were charged with conspiring to steal Micron’s trade secrets. The Trump administration at the time placed Fujian Jinhua on the so-called Entity List, prohibiting U.S. component sales to this Chinese DRAM maker.

In 2021, UMC and Micron announced a settlement. UMC admitted guilt in an agreement with U.S. prosecutors, and the prosecution agreed to drop the charges of economic espionage and conspiracy.

Nevertheless, the case against Fujian Jinhua by the US Department of Justice remains pending.

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(Photo credit: Micron)