[News] Chinese DRAM Companies Stealing DRAM IP From Samsung and SK Hynix

[StyM]

https://www.techpowerup.com/245790/c...g-and-sk-hynix

It's not just Micron, but also Korean DRAM giants Samsung and SK Hynix, that are the latest victims of large-scale industrial espionage by Chinese DRAM makers to steal vital DRAM intellectual property (IP), according to Korea Times. Today's DRAM makers build their products on IP acquired over decades, and that is time Chinese companies do not have, and aren't willing to license from established DRAM makers, either.

"Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have become the target of industrial espionage by Chinese memory chip manufacturers. In semiconductors, patents are critical to the cost structure. The companies have to protect what they have spent decades building. The result is Chinese companies are attempting to infringe on Samsung and SK patents," said a Korean official involved in the investigation of IP theft.

[bluestang]

I guess they're sick of the price gouging too.

[Particle]

For once I think I'm completely okay with it so long as Chinese companies start vomiting cheap DRAM all over the world market.

[madcho]

If engineers don't get paid for their work, companies are going to reduce R&D budgets. New tech will arrive more and more slowly. It's not for nothing, some country banned chinese people from research centers, governement or in industry, and for decades !!!!

[vario]

On one hand thats bad.
On the other hand, this cartel needs to be fixed somehow, and competition is always welcomed.
There is this middleground between draining people and not getting enough to keep themselves well funded, and now we are not in this middleground.Also i dont think companies should get copyrights and patents for decades like now.Thats the reason people are actually dying from the lack of cheap medicine.

[xytrius]

On one hand thats bad.
On the other hand, this cartel needs to be fixed somehow, and competition is always welcomed.
There is this middleground between draining people and not getting enough to keep themselves well funded, and now we are not in this middleground.Also i dont think companies should get copyrights and patents for decades like now.Thats the reason people are actually dying from the lack of cheap medicine.

Well said Sir, could not agree more.

[madcho]

I agree too. Cartels is just as bad.

[zanzabar]

I agree too. Cartels is just as bad.

After the consolidation 10 years ago and everything moving to cross licensing for IP it is not like anyone new could make modern memory if they wanted to. That is why they can keep doing that despite there being lots of fabs that could print bulk memory for embedded devices. Phone and computer stuff would not really be viable, but right now amd cannot even make their own HBM2 due to IP despite samsung building their fabs with the same base and printing similar integrated cache.

[Hornet331]

The current price for Dram is quite out of whack, when you think things usually tend to get cheaper when they get older, not more expensive.
You pay 2-2,5x the price for DDR3 you payed 2 years ago, same for DDR4.

But thats not the first time that happened, when you look back to the range of 2012-2014 you had the same exact pattern.
New players might shuffle that a bit up.

I am not really for stealing tech and I think IP is important, but protections for decades its another thing. Times are much faster now, companies make profits multiple the times of what they spent on R&D (for years), e.g. Hynix made a profit of 12 Billion USD in 2017, this already covered the R&D expenses for 2017 and the last 5 years of so (spending roughly 2 billion a year)

Its interesting people talk for ages to tackle IP laws, but they have stayed the same for ages.