The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said it will initiate patent infringement investigations against Samsung Electronics of Korea, Qualcomm Incorporated and TSMC regarding certain semiconductor devices and integrated circuits (ICs) and mobile devices that use these parts and components.
Reuters and TelecomLead, a website specializing in communications equipment and semiconductor news, reported that the U.S. International Trade Commission said in a statement that it received a complaint last month from Daedalus Prime of New York State and voted to investigate Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) (TSMC), as well as certain integrated circuits from Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm.
Daedalus Prime, Inc. filed a complaint on September 13 alleging that the integrated circuits, mobile devices and components containing such integrated circuits imported into the United States and sold by the companies concerned infringe patents in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and therefore requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to issue a “limited exclusion order” and “cease and desist orders. The ITC has requested that the USITC issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders.
The USITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case. The Commission’s chief administrative law judge will assign an administrative law judge to schedule a hearing, and that administrative law judge will make a preliminary determination of whether Section 337 has been violated, which will be subject to review by the Commission.
The U.S. financial press reports that if the Commission finds that the devices infringe the Daedalus Prime patent, they may be legally prohibited from being imported into the United States. The devices targeted include smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, such as Samsung’s Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy A71 5G phones, as well as chips Daedalus Prime alleges TSMC makes for U.S. companies such as Qualcomm.
The scope of the patents asserted in Daedalus Prime’s complaint to the Commission was originally developed by Intel Corp. and later acquired by Daedalus Prime.
The Commission launched an investigation into automotive semiconductors a week ago, also stemming from a patent infringement complaint filed by Daedalus Prime, which imports these semiconductors from companies including Mercedes-Benz USA LLC, NXP USA Inc. and Avnet Inc.
Attorneys for Samsung, TSMC and Daedalus Prime have not yet responded to requests for comment.
