A patent dispute between US chipmaker Global Foundries and Apple supplier TSMC has recently moved to court, with the first hoping to obtain a block on the imports of a series of devices in the United States and Germany.
Global Foundries claims the chips manufactured by TSMC violate on a total of 16 patents that it owns, and as a result, it wants an import ban on all devices that are equipped with the said hardware.
Apple is cited in three of the alleged patent violation documents, and if Global Foundries wins the lawsuit, Cupertino’s devices, including here the iPhone, could end up being banned in both the US and Germany.
Qualcomm also named in the lawsuit
TSMC is one of the largest Apple suppliers, but the company is also working with a series of other tech firms. There are 20 defendants named in the lawsuit, including Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, Google, Lenovo, and OnePlus.
“While semiconductor manufacturing has continued to shift to Asia, GF has bucked the trend by investing heavily in the American and European semiconductor industries, spending more than $15 billion dollars in the last decade in the U.S. and more than $6 billion in Europe's largest semiconductor manufacturing fabrication facility. These lawsuits are aimed at protecting those investments and the US and European-based innovation that powers them,” said Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president, engineering and technology at GF.
“For years, while we have been devoting billions of dollars to domestic research and development, TSMC has been unlawfully reaping the benefits of our investments. This action is critical to halt Taiwan Semiconductor’s unlawful use of our vital assets and to safeguard the American and European manufacturing base.”
Needless to say, none of the defendants mentioned above offered a statement on the lawsuit, but there’s a good chance an import ban never happens, as such disputes typically end with a settlement before a court ruling is announced.