Finbased field-effect transistor (FinFET) technology, common in one form or another to most high-performance semiconductors on the market today, extends the field-effect transistors found on chips into the third dimension as a means of reducing power draw and/or boosting performance. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, though, claims to have a patent applicable to FinFET implementations, and has been licensing it out under its KAIST IP subsidiary - a subsidiary which, a lawsuit claims, Samsung refused to pay before implementing FinFET in its own products.
The details of the case are complex: Samsung claims to have worked with the University to develop the technology in the first place and denies both the validity of and its infringement of the patent; the University, meanwhile, alleges that Samsung was dismissive of the FinFET research until rival Intel licensed it for its own products, where it was used as the basis for what is now known under the trade name Tri-Gate Transistor.
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