Samsung could face lawsuit for infringing on FinFET technology patent

posted by Cosmin V. / Dec 04, 2016, 4:31 PM

Samsung could face lawsuit for infringing on FinFET technology patent

Big companies like Samsung, Apple, Google and Microsoft often sue each other for patent infringement. More often that not these lawsuits end abruptly as one of the party agrees to pay a certain amount of money to the other.

Well, this time the “culprit” is Samsung, as the South Korean company is about to face a lawsuit for infringing patent related to FinFET technology. This is the same technology that Samsung has been so proud of in the last couple of months and the same used at Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 manufacture.

According to the South Korean media, the US-based Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) plans to sue Samsung over FinFET patent infringement.

Apparently, it was KAIST that developed the 10nm FinFET technology that Samsung now uses for Qualcomm's high-end chipset, but the technology was stolen by the South Korean company.

The “stolen” part happen when Samsung invited FinFET developer Lee Jong-ho, a Seoul National University professor, one of KAIST's partners, to show Samsung's engineers how the technology works.

Samsung was able to reduce the development time and cost by copying Lee’s invention without costs. (Samsung) has continued copying Lee’s invention without authority or proper compensation.

In KAIST's favor, Intel recogonized the true creator of the FinFET technology and has already secured the licenses to use it, but Samsung has yet to do the same. KAIST also targets other companies for infringing on its technology, including Qualcomm and TSMC.

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source: The Investor via SamMobile

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44 Comments

2. darkkjedii

Posts: 30786; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

It'll result in a licensing agreement. No biggie, that's how most get settled.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 4:49 PM 14

6. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

I personally hope they refuse to license it, and sue for punitive damages. I'm about fed up with this company not acknowledging wrongdoing.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 6:00 PM 4

8. darkkjedii

Posts: 30786; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

Too bad you're not involved in any way.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 6:31 PM 9

12. ashrafalhujaili

Posts: 73; Member since: Oct 03, 2014

if they are right about thier claims maybe they are just saying nonsense

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 7:00 PM 1

14. fyah_king unregistered

Damn , Apple always copying others!

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 7:13 PM 0

37. dazed1

Posts: 777; Member since: Jul 28, 2015

I smell iFanatic.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 6:27 AM 0

39. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Dude, I get you are new, but try reading some of my 1608 posts and tell me I'm an "ifan".

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 7:56 PM 0

38. dazed1

Posts: 777; Member since: Jul 28, 2015

I smell iFanatic.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 6:27 AM 0

43. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Clearly reading isn't your strong suit.

posted on Dec 06, 2016, 4:09 PM 0

3. Finalflash

Posts: 4062; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

They probably aren't asking for a ridiculous royalty since Intel already signed up for it. So this should resolve rather quickly.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 4:57 PM 4

5. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Until the insulting offer they gave me for my defective washer, I didn't hate the company, and I have spent a decent amount of money with them. Upwards of 8-9k over the last 10 years. However, I honestly hope that Apple, FinFET, and every other company bankrupt this damn place. I'm sorry, but they really are an awful company.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 5:59 PM 3

7. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

Had the same issues with Apple when my iPod went out and couldn't recoup my purchased media. I'll guarantee you there is at least one person for every company out there who has the same gripes as you and I do. If we each had the result you're looking for, they'd all be out of business. No matter what company you like, someone else has a grudge against them. I haven't dealt with Samsung because of my experience on the Galaxy S3, but that's my experience. But just because I've had issues with Apple and Samsung, doesn't mean I want them gone.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 6:13 PM 1

9. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

My problem is they sold me a defective product 1 year ago. Now, they want to give me less than HALF of what I paid for this product a year ago. If they could fix the problem, I would have kept the washer, but their version of a "fix" is to just reinforce the top so it doesn't separate. Not actually make it where if you put in something like a comforter it doesn't try to beat the top off the thing. That's not a fix, that's a "we know it's a problem, we know we should do something about it, but this is all we feel legally required to do so it's all you are going to get. Between that, the mishandling of the Note7, stealing trade secrets above, and some questionable practices with regards to Apple, the company needs to die. The family that owns it is very obviously extremely corrupt and I'm about ready to start a gofundme to run hit pieces against the stupid company. I paid 700 dollars for a washer a year ago, and they want to offer me 350 as a "fix". I'm sorry, that's unacceptable to ask me to take a 50% loss on a product you sold that you knew was defective. There is no way they didn't get product complaints in the 5 years it has been made. This is the first time I have wanted to literally take a company down.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 6:40 PM 3

33. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

What I said still stands. If you think there aren't people who feel the same way about a company you like, then I don't know what to tell you. A company that sells in the volume they do is bound to have issues, and not meet their customer's satisfaction from time to time. And if the product has been made for 5 years, I'd think you would be seen something about the defect in a simple search. I'm not saying they're in the right, but it's not like anyone died. Look at the issues some car manufacturers have had that put customer's lives in danger. Lee Iaccoca is famous (or infamous) for saying it was more simple to settle lawsuits than fix the defect in the Pinto. If anyone should draw your ire, it should be a someone like that.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 1:14 AM 0

40. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Look, I agree to a certain extent. I didn't buy the thing, my fiancee did (I just paid for it). She did do some research. I know all about the manufacturing process, and I would give them the benefit of doubt if they weren't visibly screwing me over. If a car OEM issues a recall and can't fix the car, that's a LEMON, and they buy it back. You don't take a loss on that car. Samsung sold a defective washer, one that they have no fix for, and they want me to take a loss on their mistake. I probably wouldn't have been as pissed if they offered me like 600 for a 700 dollar washer to account for slight depreciation. But a year old washer doesn't depreciate 50% in a year. Also, they are depreciating the machines by manufacturing date, not by sale date. From what my fiancee says, whom is an accountant, that part is illegal. I'm willing to give any company an opportunity to make something right, but from my conversations with samsung so far, they have all but told me to get bent. That's after buying 2 TV's, soundbar, S7, S5, S4 x2 each for myself and fiancee, a washer, and an ATIV Tab 7, (The 12 inch windows detachable tablet). I've spent upwards about 8 or so grand with this company, and their response is "that's all we can do for you". I'm sorry, that's unacceptable. I have a 2016 Subaru that has had issues with the a seat frame squeak, they replaced the seat bottom, squeak gone. That's what you do, you don't tell your customer "get bent". There are questions surrounding this company's ethics, and honestly when you have enough voices you tend to believe that maybe they are right. I honestly thought, and still mostly do, think the N7 issue was overblown. They seem to mostly be taking care of those customers. So it blows me away that they would take this approach to this circumstance. I'm not saying you are wrong on LI, as I believe that is standard operating procedure for the "Big Three". The GM ignition switch issue all but confirms that evil mentality. However, I'm beginning to see that mentality here with samsung. I would rather spend another 10k to make myself feel better about getting screwed over, and hopefully cost them some business along the way, than just roll over and take the BS 350 offer. We went from a washer that was truly broken where the shocks attached to the tub were shot. So the fact that this one beat around didn't completely come as a surprise when we first got it. I didn't really know that anything was wrong because our old beater did that. It wasn't until she got this new LG washer that I realized just how bad it was. So clearly they had to know something wasn't right if they did any product testing and comparison at all. They didn't care, and wanted to stick their customers with the bill for a defective washer. So at this point, I put LI and Hyun on the same level. Evil, chitty people.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 8:15 PM 0

41. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

What you're talking about is how things used to be 20 years ago. Most companies don't offer that kind of service after the sale anymore. And unless that particular issue was covered under warranty, they're under no obligation to fix it. I'm not saying I agree with it, that's just how it is. In fact if the issue isn't covered under warranty and they offered you 50%, I'd say that's pretty decent. Most wouldn't even do that. But saying I've bought this and this and this so you owe me for my loyalty, that's not how it works. The only thing you can do going forward is speak with your wallet. I've read articles about foreign OEMs refusing to do buybacks on lemon vehicles as well. The customer service we had when our parents were around is gone. Just accepting that makes it much easier to deal with. There are companies who still do that kind of service, but they're the exception, not the norm. My point still is, to say a company needs to go bankrupt because you lost a few hundred dollars, that's a little extreme. Say you lost around $400, you think it would be OK for the probably tens of thousands of employees to lose their livelihoods over that? And most of whom have no connection to what happened to your situation other than they work for the same company. There's nothing wrong with being angry, but that's taking it a bit far.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 9:18 PM 0

42. 14545

Posts: 1835; Member since: Nov 22, 2011

Sure, it's the way things mostly are now, but that doesn't mean it should be. There are plenty of corp's that believe in customer service. Verizon, for a time, built their reputation on that. By saying that you are ok with this, means you are ok with getting screwed over. I'm not saying I want to see people unemployed, but they bought this on themselves by supporting a crap company. I'm not asking for the company to support the product for life, I'm just asking for a reasonable buyback price for a defective unit they sold. Also, no 50% for a year old washer is not decent, even using straight line depreciation. If you bought one of these VW's last year, and you found out they were going to give you 10k for what you paid 20k for, would you be happy? No, you would raise a stink about it. Only smartphones come close to depreciating that fast. This narrow minded thinking of not caring about service after the sale is not how business survives, even today. If I hadn't had good (seemingly) quality products in the past, I wouldn't have continued to buy from the company. Also, I, and others in the Lemon Law cases you speak of, have legal recourse, but the main ones that win in that circumstance are the lawyers. I really don't see how you can absolve them of responsibility "because it's how things are". There is nothing that frustrates me more at work than when people won't do things to make the place better because "it's how we have always done it.". What kind of sense does that make? I never said they owe me anything for my "loyalty", but if they ever want my continued loyalty, then they better damn well pay. You also seem to not understand how depreciation works. A product's useful life isn't the length of the warranty period (even though I am just barely out of the full warranty, and the "warranty" the motor for 10 years), it's determined by what the average lifespan of the product is. So even if that "average" is 5 years, it should have at most (using accelerated depreciation) lost 33% of its value. Which again, if you think these people will ever buy from you again, it's better to err on the side of caution and make this process as simple as possible on them. Otherwise, you end up with a whole lot of pissed off people. I do find it curious you specify "foreign" in your car OEM example, because I have seen Chrysler to be the most egregious on this matter, which is why I did vote with my dollars and stayed the h377 away from them. Sometimes it's far easier to shame a company, hope it goes viral and they are forced to do the right thing. Much like with Note7 debacle. I think they have shown their true stripes on this and everyone would be best served to run away from this company. Not android, but Samsung.

posted on Dec 06, 2016, 4:08 PM 0

44. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

If you'd be out if warranty, they wouldn't owe you anything, that was my point. But you never said where you were.in your warranty period. You can say it's being OK with being screwed over, but if all the companies are doing it, it's reality and has no bearing on your acceptance of it. My brother in law's mother has one of the affected VWs and they will get the value of it at the time they were found guilty. It's not about not caring about service after the sale, but it is about understanding that not everyone gets what they want. Sure, youau have gotten screwed over here, maybe you didn't. But you act like everyone else has the same experience that you have had. You've unfortunately fallen into the bad experience category, but how many are in there with you, how many are in the medium or good categories? And if you never said they didn't owe you anything for your loyalty, they why bring up them telling you to get bent after (then proceeding to list all of the Samsung products you bought) if you weren't expecting them to reward your loyalty? Actuslly I do, and warranty makes a big difference on how much value the product retains, especially if the warranty is transferrable. I'm sure they've got people and programs to calculate the value of your product for them that takes many things into account. You're sounding a bit like the guy trying to sell his car and no one's biting, do maybe it's set too high. We'd all like to get what we believe the value a given product, but in reality it's almost always lower than what we figure. I specified foreign because you used domestic companies as a bad example and your Subaru as a good one. Do you think that there aren't people feeling the same way about Subaru right now because they have a defective car and feel Subaru's low balling their car's value? Yeah, I've made that same claim to companies that I'm gonna let everyone know how they handled a situation as a threat. But in reality, most people will look at your situation, shrug, and move on. If it didn't happen to them, they really don't care.

posted on Dec 07, 2016, 10:14 AM 0

10. Kumar123 unregistered

Samsung have been stealing from the beginning. They stole TSMC's employees so that they can use TSMC's technique and now they stole other people's work. This company has no shame.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 6:42 PM 4

15. fyah_king unregistered

I know, Apple be stealing from everybody.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 7:16 PM 4

16. fyah_king unregistered

Namaste!!!

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 7:16 PM 0

23. guests

Posts: 196; Member since: Jun 19, 2016

Were u hiding in a cave when there's news on apple stealing patent??

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 9:59 PM 1

36. NoToFanboys

Posts: 3231; Member since: Oct 03, 2015

He was hiding in Tim Cook's pants.

posted on Dec 05, 2016, 5:15 AM 1

20. cnour

Posts: 2305; Member since: Sep 11, 2014

Samsung must patent its copying technology.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 9:41 PM 2

22. guests

Posts: 196; Member since: Jun 19, 2016

No, they will get sued by apple.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 9:55 PM 0

24. bolosantosi

Posts: 103; Member since: Sep 20, 2016

What will you say when apple goes with Samsung OLED displays next year?

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 10:07 PM 0

25. TechDork

Posts: 400; Member since: May 10, 2010

This has just been a bad year for Sammy.

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 10:52 PM 0

26. razmahtaz001

Posts: 501; Member since: May 11, 2013

qualcomm and tsmc are also found to infringe, but lets put samsungs name at the top LOL when there are several infringing companies, i notice samsung gets most of the attention LOL

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 10:52 PM 0

27. KRONeage

Posts: 144; Member since: Apr 17, 2011

Dig into this and it's not Samsung's FinFet technology at all. It's for a single aspect of the Foundry 10nm FinFet manufacturing process. Why claim it's for the whole foundry process itself? Most of why not change the heading to TSMC, Qualcomm, Samsung under 10nm FinFet process? .......I know, I know the writers online in the USA, like to pick on Samsung, because they are first to actually get 10nm FinFet fully tested and ramped up before anyone else. Why not give Samsung the benefit of the doubt? Instead of calling them thieves (like these others are then too), when nothing has even been settled in court! Not that it wouldn't be..... since a lot of these patents for things, when they have no way to test or really develop the patent themselves make them more like Patent Trolls than Inventers! ........and who knows if these companies are all paying license fees because it's sometimes cheaper than going through the courts. Wait till Judge and Jury make that decision if the patent is even valid or not. Obviously, Samsung thinks they aren't breaking this patent and intend to fight it in court. Instead of just roll over and play dead or just pay a licensing fee, to an invalid patent!

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 11:20 PM 0

28. Klinton

Posts: 1408; Member since: Oct 24, 2016

'KAIST also targets other companies for infringing on its technology, including Qualcomm and TSMC' and only one line? But yet Samsung is only on the spot. Samsung must be very scary?

posted on Dec 04, 2016, 11:31 PM 0

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