Yangtze Memory turns up heat on Micron with UK patent suit following anti-astroturfing complaint, motion to unstay U.S. case

Context:

• In late 2022, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) added Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp. (YMTC) to the Entity List, effectively shutting it out of the U.S. market for 3D NAND flash memory.
• About a year later, YMTC filed a U.S. patent infringement lawsuit against Micron. But despite the United States District Court for the Northern District of California having set two trial dates that could not be kept, the case is presently on hold due to inter partes reviews (IPRs) instituted by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). YMTC has recently brought a motion (shown further below) to lift the stay in part, given that a handful of its patents-in-suit are not subjected to an IPR.
• In June, YMTC brought a complaint (shown further below) against Micron in the District of Columbia, accusing it of astroturfing in its campaign that led to YMTC’s exclusion from the U.S. market. YMTC is pursuing claims under false advertising and unfair competition law.

What’s new: YMTC is now taking its patent enforcement campaign to Europe. A new infringement lawsuit has become discoverable in the High Court of Justice for England & Wales (EWHC).

Direct impact: The UK is a jurisdiction in which it is much easier for patent holders than in the U.S. to obtain an injunction. But Micron may countersue over some of its own patents (as it did in the U.S.).

Wider ramifications:

• If YMTC decided to sue in the UK, it would not be surprising to also see litigation in the EU, be it in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and/or national courts such as in Germany.
• The risk of memory chips, which do not have any transmission capability, allowing the Chinese government to obtain confidential data from U.S. entities or citizens as a result of the use of YMTC chips is not perfectly plausible.