Chinese YMTC sues Micron for stealing 11 computer memory technologies

The American company Micron Technology not only became the target of Chinese sanctions, but was also subject to accusations from a Chinese competitor represented by the company YMTC, which produces solid-state memory of the 3D NAND type. This Chinese manufacturer recently accused Micron of violating 11 of its patents and filed a lawsuit in a US court.

Image source: Micron Technology

This was reported this week by Bloomberg, citing a lawsuit filed by YMTC last Friday against the American company Micron Technology in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California. It accuses Micron of the Chinese company YMTC of grossly violating the company’s legal rights to intellectual property protected by 11 patents.

The lawsuit was filed a day after a Texas court ruled in favor of Netlist, which accused Micron of violating its intellectual property rights. Now Micron will have to pay Netlist material compensation in the amount of $445 million. It is not specified how much damage is estimated in the YMTC lawsuit.

This is not the first case of Micron being prosecuted by YMTC; the first case of this kind began to be considered by American justice authorities back in November 2023. That lawsuit involved YMTC technologies related to the production and operation of 3D NAND memory chips. Already last year, YMTC began supplying its customers with 232-layer memory chips of this type, which is quite consistent with the level of technological capabilities of the world’s main competitors. Micron has been under sanctions in China since May last year; its products cannot be used in critical information infrastructure facilities. Now the Chinese company is trying to pursue an American competitor on its native soil.