US ITC Seeks Public Comments on Public Interest Issues
South Korean Semiconductor Firms Targeted by "Patent Trolls"
"A Pressure Tactic Aimed at SK Hynix and Other Companies"
A patent dispute surrounding SK Hynix, which has emerged as a key company in AI (artificial intelligence) semiconductors, has been placed on the U.S. government's public interest review list. Recently, the U.S. government published in the Federal Register a patent infringement lawsuit filed by a non-practicing entity (NPE) against SK Hynix. Within the industry, some interpret this as a kind of pressure message directed at Korean semiconductor companies.
According to the U.S. Federal Register on February 5, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced on February 3 (local time) that it had received a complaint from Monolithic 3D, an NPE, and classified the matter as involving "public interest issues," requesting the submission of public comments.
The complaint alleges that the sale in the United States of NAND flash and DRAM memory chips manufactured by SK Hynix and Japan's Kioxia violates Section 337 of the Tariff Act. Section 337 of the Tariff Act is a provision that regulates unfair trade practices such as the import and sale of products that infringe U.S. patents. Monolithic 3D has asked the ITC to issue a limited exclusion order, as well as cease-and-desist and prohibition orders.
According to industry sources, Monolithic 3D filed a complaint with the ITC against SK Hynix and Kioxia on January 29 (local time). Monolithic 3D claims that SK Hynix's HBM2E, HBM3, HBM3E, and all of its 3D NAND product lines infringe the company's "3D stacking technology patents (including U.S. Patent No. 531)," among others.
Monolithic 3D is an NPE that does not directly produce products or services but generates revenue through patent holdings and litigation, and is regarded as one of the so-called "patent trolls." As demand for AI semiconductors has recently expanded, Korean companies have become prime targets for NPEs. SK Hynix was also hit with a patent infringement lawsuit last January by the Chinese NPE Advanced Memory Technology (AMT). SK Hynix, for its part, has not made any particular comment on the current case, describing it only as "one of the routine patent lawsuits."
The issue is that the U.S. government has taken the unusual step of publishing this kind of patent dispute in the Federal Register. Typically, patent infringement complaints filed with the ITC are often handled through separate notices at the stages of deciding whether to initiate an investigation or during the procedural process. In this case, however, the matter has been explicitly labeled a "public interest" issue and officially published in the Federal Register, which is being interpreted as a signal that the authorities intend to assess in advance the potential ripple effects on the broader U.S. industrial and economic landscape.
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