Entegris Inc, a supplier of advanced materials and process solutions for the semiconductor and other high-technology industries, said yesterday it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Taiwan, alleging its local rival Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登) had illegally used two of its patents linked to the manufacturing of front-opening unified pods (FOUP) again.
It is the latest patent lawsuit between the two companies over the past few years. These lawsuits have mostly focused on the production of FOUP, which are used to ship, transport and store wafers during the manufacturing process of wafers and chips.
Entegris said Gudeng has used its technology covered in Taiwan Patent Numbers. 1606534 and 1515159 without the company’s authorization, according to a company statement released yesterday after it filed the lawsuit at the Intellectual Property and Commercial Court of Taiwan.
Photo: Su Fu-nan, Taipei Times
“The patent dispute involves Gudeng’s manufacture and sales of certain diffuser FOUP that use Entegris’ diffuser FOUP technology,” Entegris said in the statement.
The company said it has significantly invested in its research-and-development R&D capabilities and considered its intellectual property to be a key company asset.
“We remain committed to defending our technology with legal steps for any infringement as necessary,” the statement said.
The courts have made judgements in the patent infringement lawsuits involving Entegris and Gudeng these past few years, all of which have favored Entegris, the statement said.
Entegris said it has unwavering commitment to Taiwan and works in close collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and other local government officials to help advance the local semiconductor ecosystem. Entegris added that it relies on more than 40 local suppliers to provide supplies critical to the semiconductor supply chain.
Gudeng yesterday said in a statement that it has not received the complaint from the court yet. The company was disappointed about the patent infringement allegation lodged by Entegris, the New Taipei City Tucheng District (土城)-based company said.
Gudeng said it highly values intellectual property rights and has spent heavily on R&D efforts to bring new products to the market. Its R&D outlay almost doubled to NT$222 million (US$6.97 million) last year from 2021. That represented about 7 percent of the company’s total revenue last year.
No impact should be seen in its operations, Gudeng said. Gudeng counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co among its customers.
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