When Apple is not directly accused of infringing a patent, it is investigated for the same cause. That pendulum descended, this time, over the South Korea, where the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy is investigating allegations that Ma infringed a patent related to the FinFET process, linked to KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, that is, the Advanced Korean Institute of Science and Technology), as disclosed by the BusinessKorea.
Briefly, FinFET is an assembly process used in processors from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, maker of Ma chips) that began to equip the gadgets from Apple a few years ago. The KAIST complaint covers the chips present in the iPhone X, us iPhones 8/8 Plus, at the 6th generation iPad and on all models of the iPad Pro.
For now, Apple has not been accused of infringing any patent, as the investigation revolves around finding out if the KAIST patent is valid. If proven, Korean officials said the decision is likely to be against Apple and the aforementioned devices will be banned from the country.
Ironically, who can save Apple in this situation, its major competitor in the smartphone market, the Samsung. The Korean giant was also accused of infringing the same patent this year and presented evidence in a United States court to invalidate the patent. In addition, the company filed a similar lawsuit last July with the South Korean Intellectual Property Approval Council. The Korean minister commented that he is awaiting the outcome of Samsung's litigation, which could invalidate the KAIST case against Apple.
We cannot fail to pay attention to the judicial controversy in the US and South Korea involving Samsung, although our current investigation targets Apple. This is because Samsung presented evidence to refute the novelty of the patent, necessary for it to be considered valid.
As highlighted by the Patently Apple, “Funny” that KAIST has denounced Apple and not TSMC itself; but, d to understand the reasons if the intention is to get money, better target those who have more.
Samsung was found guilty of infringing the FinFET patent last June and ordered to pay $ 400 million to the institute. There is still no forecast of when the result of the appeal filed by the company will be published.
