Chinese chipmaker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), has sued its U.S. rival, Micron Technology, and the unit Micron Consumer Products Group before a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging infringement of eight of its patents.
Micron makes DRAM chips and NAND flash memory chips and competes with South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as well as Japan’s Kioxia, a unit of Toshiba.
YMTC had alleged that Micron turned to its patented technology to fend off competition, gain, protect market share without paying its fair share to use the patented inventions.
YMTC, a supposed smaller rival barred by the U.S. from buying certain American components last year, said in a statement on Monday that the company’s patents relating to design, manufacture, and operation of 3D NAND technology were infringed.
The U.S. and China have been engage in commercial war as the US increased restrictions on exporting chip-making technology to China on security grounds while China said Micron products failed a network security review and barred purchase of them by operators of key infrastructure.
China was once the biggest market for Micron, generating half of its $20 billion revenue in fiscal 2017.