Patent Law

The following is excerpted from a November 9, 2009 Semiconductor International article by David Lammers:

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan) settled its trade secrets lawsuit with Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC, Shanghai, China) today, with SMIC agreeing to pay $200M in cash and an undisclosed amount of stock and warrants to TSMC. Judge Steven Brick discharged the jury in the two-month-long civil trial in the California Superior Court in Oakland, Calif., saying that "unexpected news is not always bad."

Keker & Van Nest (San Francisco), the law firm which represented TSMC, said the court-approved settlement awards TSMC "$200M and an undisclosed amount of stock and warrants. The Court will maintain jurisdiction to enforce the judgment until it is finally satisfied. All the other terms of the Settlement are confidential."

While the detailed settlement terms are confidential, SMIC may disclose them in filings with securities regulators. In the case of the December 2005 settlement, SMIC divulged the terms several months later, both with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Read the full article here.