Following a years-long legal conflict over intellectual property, US chipmaker Micron Technology and Taiwanese competitor United Microelectronics (UMC) have agreed to withdraw their accusations against one other (IP).
UMC will make an unknown one-time payment to Micron, the companies announced in separate statements on Thursday, without commenting on the grounds for their withdrawal agreement. Micron accused UMC of stealing trade secrets and transferring them to a Chinese government-backed enterprise. UMC has accused two of Micron’s China-based businesses of patent infringement.
Their agreement to withdraw the allegations coincides with the US government’s larger worries about technological theft, particularly in China. The US penalized UMC $60 million last year after the Taiwanese business admitted to stealing Micron designs and shared them with China’s state-backed Fujian Jinhua, establishing a memory chip manufacturing factory.
At the time, UMC said that management was uninformed of the unlawful conduct of three former Micron workers. The US Department of Justice dropped other claims against United Microelectronics as part of the guilty plea, including conspiracy to commit economic espionage.
The US also charged Fujian Jinhua with stealing trade secrets and utilizing them in semiconductor designs. Fujian Jinhua has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
The US Department of Commerce included Fujian Jinhua in its so-called entity list in late 2018, thereby banning US firms from doing business with it. According to observers, the Chinese business has subsequently paused chip production plans.
