Chinese chipmaker YMTC sues Micron, alleges patent infringement

YMTC has filed a lawsuit against U.S. rival Micron Technology, alleging infringement of eight of its patents.

Chinese chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. rival Micron Technology alleging infringement of eight of its patents.

YMTC filed the lawsuit against Micron and unit Micron Consumer Products Group on November 9 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

According to the lawsuit, Micron turned to YMTC's patented technology to fend off competition from YMTC and to gain and protect market share. It said Micron was not paying its fair share to use the patented inventions.

YMTC did not respond to a request for comment. Micron did not respond outside regular U.S. business hours.

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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 is a much smaller rival which was last year barred by the U.S. from buying certain American components.

The U.S. in recent years has increased restrictions on exporting chipmaking technology to China on security grounds.