Four Republican members of Congress have urged the U.S. International Trade Commission to block imports of foreign-made chips found to infringe U.S. patents in a case centered on TSMC, according to a recent letter to ITC Chair Amy Karpel obtained by Axios. The investigation concerns chips fabricated on TSMC's 7nm and smaller process nodes, names Apple, Qualcomm, and Broadcom among the respondents, and an initial ruling is due this month. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) and Senators Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) argued in the letter that strategically important companies shouldn’t receive special treatment.
The ITC began investigation 337-TA-1443 in late March based on a complaint filed that February by Longitude Licensing and Marlin Semiconductor, two Dublin-registered subsidiaries of patent licensing firm IPValue Management, which San Francisco private equity firm Vector Capital has owned since 2014.
