Shanghai high court rules in favour of AMEC in its IP dispute with US chip equipment maker Lam Resea
Semiconductor equipment giant Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment of China (AMEC) has won an intellectual property infringement case against US competitor Lam Research Corp in a Shanghai court, as US-China technology rivalry in the semiconductor field rages on.
After a 13-year legal tussle, the Shanghai High People’s Court gave a final ruling requiring Lam Research to destroy “one technical document and two photographs” relating to an AMEC plasma etching machine that Lam illegally obtained, according to a statement by AMEC on Tuesday.
The court has also banned two individual defendants from Lam from using AMEC’s proprietary trade secrets. The court ordered Lam Research to pay damages and legal fees to AMEC for the infringement, AMEC said in the statement, citing the court verdict. The court’s verdict has not been published on the Shanghai High People’s Court website.
Lam Research did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Shanghai-based AMEC was founded by naturalised US citizen Gerald Yin Zhiyao in 2004. AMEC filed a lawsuit against Lam Research for infringement of its trade secrets with the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in December 2010 and won an initial verdict in March 2017. The case was then appealed to the Shanghai High People’s Court and the final verdict was issued last month, according to the AMEC statement.
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The favourable ruling for AMEC comes amid escalating tensions between China and the US over strategic tech sectors, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. After Washington upgraded its export controls against China’s access to advanced US chip equipment, Lam Research had to pull its support team out from Chinese clients such as Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp, China’s top memory chip maker.
Lam Research has stated previously that US export controls may cost it up to US$2.5 billion in annual sales.
China has hit back by initiating export restrictions on gallium and germanium from August, two rare earth metals found in a variety of electronic components, including semiconductors.
AMEC manufactures semiconductor tools for etching and thin film deposition for semiconductor foundries. Its most advanced etching tool models have been used by the world’s leading foundries on 5-nanometre production lines, according to its 2022 annual report.
Etching and thin film deposition equipment sales accounted for about 22 per cent of the global semiconductor equipment market in 2022, higher than the share of 17 per cent for lithographic tools, according to AMEC’s 2022 annual report.
Last year, amid China’s tacit goal of using up to 70 per cent of locally-produced tools to protect its semiconductor supply chain integrity, AMEC saw its revenue increase by more than 50 per cent year-on-year to 4.74 billion yuan (US$657 million), while net profit grew 15.66 per cent to 1.17 billion yuan.
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