HSINCHU, Taiwan - Macronix International announced that the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has instituted an investigation of the unfair trade practices committed by Toshiba Corporation and certain Toshiba subsidiaries based on their infringement of Macronix patents relating to memory products.
Macronix patents-in-suits relate to manufacturing and circuit designs for flash memory, including NAND and NOR, that are used in products, such as mobile devices, car navigation systems, wearable devices, digital camcorders, and servers applications. The patents-in-suits represent only a small fraction of Macronix world-wide patent portfolio.
Macronix has devoted significant resources to the development of non-volatile memory technology over the years. As a result of those investments, Macronix's research papers of advanced technologies have been continuously recognized in international conferences, including IEDM, ISSCC and VLSI, and Macronix has been granted more than 6,800 patents worldwide and over 2,700 in the United States.
In a 2015 analysis conducted by LexInnova, Macronix ranked 4th worldwide with 95 patents vs. Toshiba's 44 for patent strength in the 3D stacked memory technology.
If the ITC's investigation determines that Toshiba has committed unfair practices, the ITC may issue an exclusion order to exclude Toshiba's infringing products and/or products containing such infringing components from further importation into the United States.
In addition, the ITC may also issue cease and desist orders prohibiting further commerce in the United States involving infringing Toshiba memory devices.
