According to reports, on August 26, Globalfoundries initiated several lawsuits in the United States and Germany, accusing TSMC of infringing on its 16 patents. Currently, these lawsuits have been filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), the US District Court for the Western District of Delaware and Texas, and the courts of Düsseldorf and Mannheim, Germany.
At the same time as the lawsuit was initiated, Globalfoundries requested that TSMC be prohibited from exporting infringing semiconductor products to the United States and Germany, which means that TSMC’s customers using these products will be affected.
In addition, due to the huge sales of TSMC infringing semiconductor products, which may be as high as tens of billions of dollars, Globalfoundries is seeking huge compensation from TSMC.
“Although the semiconductor manufacturing industry is constantly shifting to Asia, Globalfoundries has grown through continuous investment in the semiconductor industry in the US and Europe. Over the past decade, Globalfoundries has spent more than $15 billion in the United States and more than $6 billion in facilities in the semiconductor manufacturing industry in Europe. The filing of this lawsuit will help protect Globalfoundries' investments and innovations in the US and Europe." Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of engineering and technology at Globalfoundries, said, "Over the past few years, we have invested billions of dollars in research and development, the lawsuit will effectively stop TSMC from illegally using the important assets of Globalfoundries."
Bloomberg pointed out that this lawsuit will likely affect the supply chain of smartphones, personal computers and other equipment. If TSMC products are banned from importing, this will also affect the important parts market of many electronic products including the iPhone.
