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Interesting that there is an entire article on potential (emphasis on potential) theft of intellectual property, but not a single mention of patents. Don't the

Interesting that there is an entire article on potential (emphasis on potential) theft of intellectual property, but not a single mention of patents. Don't the various semiconductor companies have massive stocks of patents, for just this sort of situation?

sliverstorm 12y ago
FWIW neither is a US company; TSMC is Taiwanese and Samsung is Korean. I have no idea how that plays out in patent-land, but patents are per-country. E.g., "U.S. Patent #123"
rayiner 12y ago
Trade secrets are also IP, and favored in the semiconductor industry 1) because you don't have to make the designs public; 2) because process generations are short and patents take too long to get.
WildUtah 12y ago
It takes about three years to get a patent (in both the US and Europe, the two largest semiconductor markets) and a valid patent (one that is genuinely original and not obvious) is obsolete in cutting edge semiconductors within three years, so patents play almost no role in semiconductors except to delay new entrants, obstruct compatibility with installed base software, and troll fabs with invalid scam patents. Trade secrets are essential or else nobody would innovate -- they'd just steal each others' designs until nobody could afford to invent anything. Fortunately a short non-compete (during which engineers should be paid compensation for taking time off between employers) is enough to exhaust a lot of cutting edge insider knowledge. The accusation here is that an engineer cheated his non-compete.
rhino369 12y ago
In something like semiconductors, the main competitors have tens of thousands of patents and each infringe each other 500 times over. It is essentially a wash. Competitors suits are only a good idea when you have a clear patent advantage. That is why Apple and Google got blitzed during the smartphone wars. They didn't have a phone patent portfolio like everyone else, since they were new players. It's the reason Google bought Motorola. Also, semiconductor processing is hard to reverse engineer so there are legit trade secrets that are kept.
- josteink 12y ago
  > That is why Apple and Google got blitzed during the smartphone wars. To be fair, Apple pretty much started that one on their own. It was just business as usual and didn't turn into war before Apple decided they owned usability and the critical rounded corner IP.

sliverstorm 12y ago

FWIW neither is a US company; TSMC is Taiwanese and Samsung is Korean. I have no idea how that plays out in patent-land, but patents are per-country. E.g., "U.S. Patent #123"

rayiner 12y ago

Trade secrets are also IP, and favored in the semiconductor industry 1) because you don't have to make the designs public; 2) because process generations are short and patents take too long to get.

WildUtah 12y ago

It takes about three years to get a patent (in both the US and Europe, the two largest semiconductor markets) and a valid patent (one that is genuinely original and not obvious) is obsolete in cutting edge semiconductors within three years, so patents play almost no role in semiconductors except to delay new entrants, obstruct compatibility with installed base software, and troll fabs with invalid scam patents. Trade secrets are essential or else nobody would innovate -- they'd just steal each others' designs until nobody could afford to invent anything. Fortunately a short non-compete (during which engineers should be paid compensation for taking time off between employers) is enough to exhaust a lot of cutting edge insider knowledge. The accusation here is that an engineer cheated his non-compete.

rhino369 12y ago

In something like semiconductors, the main competitors have tens of thousands of patents and each infringe each other 500 times over. It is essentially a wash. Competitors suits are only a good idea when you have a clear patent advantage. That is why Apple and Google got blitzed during the smartphone wars. They didn't have a phone patent portfolio like everyone else, since they were new players. It's the reason Google bought Motorola. Also, semiconductor processing is hard to reverse engineer so there are legit trade secrets that are kept.

josteink 12y ago
> That is why Apple and Google got blitzed during the smartphone wars. To be fair, Apple pretty much started that one on their own. It was just business as usual and didn't turn into war before Apple decided they owned usability and the critical rounded corner IP.