As reported earlier this year, chipmaker Infineon Technologies (Munich, Germany) announced it filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Elpida (Tokyo), seeking to stop Elpida from importing and selling certain DRAMs in the United States.

In response, Elpida this month filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Infineon Technologies, its subsidiary Infineon Technologies North America Corp., and Best Buy for infringing Elpida patents related to semiconductor integrated circuits.

In the complaint, Elpida asserts that Infineon and other defendants ''are engaged in infringing activities by manufacturing, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing Infineon's microcontrollers used in mobile devices.''

Elpida filed another lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against Infineon Technologies and its subsidiary Infineon Technologies North America for infringing Elpida patents related to semiconductor devices. In that complaint, Elpida asserts that the defendants ''are engaged in infringing activities by manufacturing, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing Infineon's microcontrollers used in automobiles.''

Elpida, in its complaints, seeks a permanent injunction enjoining the defendants from infringing the Elpida patents and damages from the defendants for the infringement.

With the average selling price for PC DRAMs rising 30 percent compared with the previous quarter Elpida's PC DRAM product sales soared in its third financial quarter, which ended Dec. 31, 2009, propeling the company into profit.

After its proposed deal in Taiwan has apparently fallen apart--or been scrapped--Japanese DRAM maker Elpida recently formulated a new plan to raise money. Elpida plans to raise $200 million by selling new shares and convertible bonds to memory module maker Kingston Technology Inc. The move would give Kingston a 4.79 percent stake in Elpida. The funding would be used to upgrade Elpida's 300-mm fab in Hiroshima to 40-nm technology.

Spansion Inc. recently acknowledged that Japan's Elpida acquired a portion of its research and development assets, but declined to provide further details, including the value of the deal.

By: DocMemory
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