No it would not be devastating. It would only push & force each company to sit down at home(which I stress, at home) and work much harder to really innovate even more and to excel, be the best. And maybe, just maybe... that global corporate espionage & theft would stop or at least diminish.
Like every other similar countersuit, the aim is to force the other party to sit down and negotiate an agreement. Litigating is expensive and if somehow both parties have some real claims sprinkled in there it's likely they'll just agree to avoid MAD.
Honestly patents in this area are a huge mess. Often there is only one, relatively obvious, way to do things. So you do it that way. And one side or another wins the patent race on various of these problem solutions, and could sue all competitors out of existence if it weren't for the fact that the competitor wins a few of the patent races too. Ultimately, everyone settles, the team with the biggest portfolio takes in some extra money.
NO devastating as injunction is a "global" shield (depending on HOW it is listed)
if they order pay X X amount of time for the infringe is one thing...or...Huawei becomes another guest in "our house"
take it how you will, but, potential millions of product infringe, pretty sure they cannot order buyers (me and you) from sending machines in, but, all other machines (let alone workstation/pro-end) become a very real "cease and desist all operations of)
so yes, can be slap on wrist (like AMD vs Intel decade+ of damages .. less slap on wrist when have that much $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) or like 3DFX or Aurreal vs Creative etc etc etc.
injuction pay fee is "fine" not so much when business and individual require/need those infringing products, then, the world "ends" (metaphorically as well as literally in some cases)
Your understanding of how the legal systems work is flawed. There will be no verdict that results in damages to third parties. The first and only solution is damages in the form of monetary compensation, no judge would ever even contemplate a solution like requiring businesses to cease using computers produced on that process because it would harm 3rd parties.
As another poster has already noted, both companies likely hold key essential patents that the other cannot operate without a license to use. These lawsuits are nothing more than a negotiation tactic, given the GF opened with a lawsuit TSMC will play tough with a counter suit and after spending a few million dollars each on legal fees they will see the error of their ways and come to a settlement that results in cross-licensing each others patents and money changing hands to whoever has the bigger patents portfolio with "essential" patents.
Afterwards if one or both of them is stupid they'll try to sue the other fab's and end up spending even more money on legal fees with the hope of getting back a few percent of those legal fees in license fees.
"global corporate espionage & theft" what a pile of horseshit. GF didnt even have 14nm node if they didnt license from samsung. GF is a full half a decade behind TSMC. TSMC are not dumpster divers that would be US legal system that live off of other ppl's earning. and patent trolls like GF who couldnt compte at semi manufacturing have changed to patent troll bottom feeding
My last straw against not using an ad-blocker was because I visited Imgur and got redirected to a shithole website that tried to ransome my phone. Good thing Chrome on Android lets me clear all cache and such. My dad's iPhone also got hit like that, and literally deleting everything related to safari data in the options fixed his too.
Advertising companies don't understand that it's not the ads we hate, it's the thousand of idiotic things we have to deal with because of bad advertisement... Idiot clickbaits, malware, redirects... if the advertising companies can come together and fix these issues, then maybe I wouldn't use ad-blocker. Until then, I won't support advertisements on the Web because of how intrusive and terrible they are...
Sorry to sites like Anandtech who need the ad money to survive... but ad companies have done this to themselves...
Don't be sorry. Years ago Anandtech and Dailytech was hosting adverts that delivered malware... Since then I refuse to visit the website without Adblock. They stuffed up.
They abused the system, the system pushed back.
Plus Anandtech hasn't really supported any other regions other than the USA with it's competitions anyway despite prior promises... So even less incentive to give them my advert revenue.
Yes, it feels like the corporate version of a playground fight between two little boys over a game of pretend (or man children over their cars...pretty much the same thing either way when men are involved in comparing things they each own) that blew up into something where each one ran to a teacher in tears over what that other big meanie head did.
Can we just skip all the BS, cut to the chase, and have the two companies sign a royalty free cross licensing agreement and buy all their lawyers new luxury yachts; and then spend all the time not wasted on improving their product lines.
That only works if both companies want to. Global Foundries is coasting right now. They don't want to fiend on new nodes. Global Foundries only wants to cheaply expand and improve their existing nodes and cash in on their remaining IP they got from IBM and from their split with AMD. Hopefully they won't go full nuclear on these lawsuits, as that worked so well for Apple.
Likely net result - a cross license agreement and some richer lawyers. (AMD might be a bit upset with this whole mess as they depend on both GF and TSMC for the Zen 2 Ryzen line.)
This is only counter-suit #1 against GloFo. Soon the clients of TSMC that GloFo sued will also counter-sue.. My guess is that all of them have a range of patents that GloFo probably infringed as well. In the end, because GloFo sued so many companies they might end up paying them fines and royalties for patents they had no idea they had infringed..
This is what a judicial system is for to determine fact from fiction and resolve business and patent disputes. Hopefully the judge is a techie who can render a proper verdict.
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24 Comments
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lejeczek - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
No it would not be devastating. It would only push & force each company to sit down at home(which I stress, at home) and work much harder to really innovate even more and to excel, be the best.And maybe, just maybe... that global corporate espionage & theft would stop or at least diminish.
close - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Like every other similar countersuit, the aim is to force the other party to sit down and negotiate an agreement. Litigating is expensive and if somehow both parties have some real claims sprinkled in there it's likely they'll just agree to avoid MAD.Frenetic Pony - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Yah, what is is, 95% of all cases are settled out of court? Something like that.surt - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Honestly patents in this area are a huge mess. Often there is only one, relatively obvious, way to do things. So you do it that way. And one side or another wins the patent race on various of these problem solutions, and could sue all competitors out of existence if it weren't for the fact that the competitor wins a few of the patent races too. Ultimately, everyone settles, the team with the biggest portfolio takes in some extra money.Dragonstongue - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
NO devastating as injunction is a "global" shield (depending on HOW it is listed)if they order pay X X amount of time for the infringe is one thing...or...Huawei becomes another guest in "our house"
take it how you will, but, potential millions of product infringe, pretty sure they cannot order buyers (me and you) from sending machines in, but, all other machines (let alone workstation/pro-end) become a very real "cease and desist all operations of)
so yes, can be slap on wrist (like AMD vs Intel decade+ of damages .. less slap on wrist when have that much $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$) or like 3DFX or Aurreal vs Creative etc etc etc.
injuction pay fee is "fine" not so much when business and individual require/need those infringing products, then, the world "ends" (metaphorically as well as literally in some cases)
rahvin - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Your understanding of how the legal systems work is flawed. There will be no verdict that results in damages to third parties. The first and only solution is damages in the form of monetary compensation, no judge would ever even contemplate a solution like requiring businesses to cease using computers produced on that process because it would harm 3rd parties.As another poster has already noted, both companies likely hold key essential patents that the other cannot operate without a license to use. These lawsuits are nothing more than a negotiation tactic, given the GF opened with a lawsuit TSMC will play tough with a counter suit and after spending a few million dollars each on legal fees they will see the error of their ways and come to a settlement that results in cross-licensing each others patents and money changing hands to whoever has the bigger patents portfolio with "essential" patents.
Afterwards if one or both of them is stupid they'll try to sue the other fab's and end up spending even more money on legal fees with the hope of getting back a few percent of those legal fees in license fees.
azfacea - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
"global corporate espionage & theft" what a pile of horseshit.GF didnt even have 14nm node if they didnt license from samsung. GF is a full half a decade behind TSMC. TSMC are not dumpster divers that would be US legal system that live off of other ppl's earning. and patent trolls like GF who couldnt compte at semi manufacturing have changed to patent troll bottom feeding
lejeczek - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Another one who thinks that semiconductor industry is 10yrs old.... Another one bites the... umph.. umps.. lots love, xxx.OCedHrt - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Got redirected to http://luckyguys.top/prize/luckyus-ad/lp2.php?c=31...While on Chrome on an Android device. Highly doubt my phone has malware. More likely an ad has malware.
Xyler94 - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
My last straw against not using an ad-blocker was because I visited Imgur and got redirected to a shithole website that tried to ransome my phone. Good thing Chrome on Android lets me clear all cache and such. My dad's iPhone also got hit like that, and literally deleting everything related to safari data in the options fixed his too.Advertising companies don't understand that it's not the ads we hate, it's the thousand of idiotic things we have to deal with because of bad advertisement... Idiot clickbaits, malware, redirects... if the advertising companies can come together and fix these issues, then maybe I wouldn't use ad-blocker. Until then, I won't support advertisements on the Web because of how intrusive and terrible they are...
Sorry to sites like Anandtech who need the ad money to survive... but ad companies have done this to themselves...
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Don't be sorry. Years ago Anandtech and Dailytech was hosting adverts that delivered malware... Since then I refuse to visit the website without Adblock. They stuffed up.They abused the system, the system pushed back.
Plus Anandtech hasn't really supported any other regions other than the USA with it's competitions anyway despite prior promises... So even less incentive to give them my advert revenue.
eek2121 - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Yep, here we go, cross licensing agreement inbound.shabby - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
So will this block the io chiplet from ryzen in being imported? Or will tsmc just fab it for amd?levizx - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
TSMC can't fab it without significant redesign. Samsung can fab it with a simple re-tapeout.PeachNCream - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Yes, it feels like the corporate version of a playground fight between two little boys over a game of pretend (or man children over their cars...pretty much the same thing either way when men are involved in comparing things they each own) that blew up into something where each one ran to a teacher in tears over what that other big meanie head did.Vitor - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
There are so many vague and overreachings patents that if one company managed to enforce theirs, all others would have to close.DanNeely - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Can we just skip all the BS, cut to the chase, and have the two companies sign a royalty free cross licensing agreement and buy all their lawyers new luxury yachts; and then spend all the time not wasted on improving their product lines.ipkh - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
That only works if both companies want to. Global Foundries is coasting right now. They don't want to fiend on new nodes. Global Foundries only wants to cheaply expand and improve their existing nodes and cash in on their remaining IP they got from IBM and from their split with AMD. Hopefully they won't go full nuclear on these lawsuits, as that worked so well for Apple.Duncan Macdonald - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
Likely net result - a cross license agreement and some richer lawyers. (AMD might be a bit upset with this whole mess as they depend on both GF and TSMC for the Zen 2 Ryzen line.)SunLord - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
GoFo just wants TSMC to buy themSantoval - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
This is only counter-suit #1 against GloFo. Soon the clients of TSMC that GloFo sued will also counter-sue.. My guess is that all of them have a range of patents that GloFo probably infringed as well. In the end, because GloFo sued so many companies they might end up paying them fines and royalties for patents they had no idea they had infringed..Techie2 - Tuesday, October 1, 2019 - link
This is what a judicial system is for to determine fact from fiction and resolve business and patent disputes. Hopefully the judge is a techie who can render a proper verdict.rganeshkumar - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Any info which law firms representing either of these firms?Spunjji - Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - link
Bit of repetition in the bullet points - the final three are just the second two, but split up.