Micron has filed a lawsuit alleging that Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) systematically poached its engineers to misappropriate trade secrets and build a patent portfolio. According to the complaint, former employees joined YMTC and filed patents based on technology developed while working at Micron, subsequently using these patents to sue their former employer for infringement.
The dispute involves several former Micron engineers, including Daesik Song, Hongbin Zhu, and Wenxi Zhou. Micron claims these individuals had access to confidential technical materials regarding 3D NAND manufacturing, such as high-aspect-ratio etching and memory I/O circuitry. The company asserts that inventions tied to these employees belong to Micron under existing assignment agreements.
The legal conflict has escalated into a global patent war. Since November 2023, YMTC has initiated multiple lawsuits against Micron in the United States, China, the U.K., and before the Unified Patent Court in Germany. Micron is now seeking to have the ownership of specific patents transferred to its name, arguing that YMTC's claims are based on stolen intellectual property.
Micron alleges that YMTC's strategy involved hiring engineers who hid their new roles on LinkedIn and cited personal reasons for resignation to avoid internal scrutiny. Micron admits it did not initially investigate the departures because YMTC lacked significant market share at the time. The company is now challenging the validity of YMTC's patent enforcement campaign across multiple jurisdictions.
