Broadcom v. MediaTek-What is an ITC investigation?

In April this year, IC design leader MediaTek and its subsidiary Morningstar were both sued by Broadcom (Broadcom) in the US court on the grounds of infringing the patent of audio-visual chips. At present, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) launched an investigation last month.

In addition, Wang Hong also sued Toshiba (Toshiba) for infringing its Flash-related patents in the U.S. Federal Court. ITC has launched an investigation. According to past investigation practice, ITC investigation report will be released in about 15-18 months. It remains to be seen whether it will affect the sale of Toshiba's memory business.

Broadcom filed a complaint with the Federal District Court of California in March, accusing MediaTek and its Morningstar of infringing its own AV chip patents, covering digital TVs, set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, DVD players, home theater systems, multimedia streaming players and other products.

In fact, Botong not only sued Lianfa Branch and Morningstar for infringement, but also LG, Japanese electronics manufacturer Funai (Funai), American chip manufacturer Sigma Design, TV manufacturer Vizio and other manufacturers were also listed as defendants. At present, ITC also launched an investigation in the middle and late of last month. MediaTek previously stated that it would not comment on this case, but it has no significant impact on the company's operations.

At present, MediaTek is not only accused of infringement by Broadcom, but also accused of infringement of graphics processing technology patents by Ultramicro (AMD) as early as last year. AMD pointed out in the complaint that the mid-scale chip P10 produced by MediaTek infringes AMD graphics processing patents. Although the amount of compensation is not yet clear, AMD requested in the complaint that the relevant infringing products be prohibited from being imported into the United States and is currently under ITC investigation.

Popular Science Lecture: What is an ITC Survey?

S. International Trade Commission, or ITC. The U.S. International Trade Commission is an independent, non-partisan, quasi-judicial federal agency formerly known as the U.S. Tariff Commission, created in 1916. The ITC has a number of administrative, public relations and professional functional offices. Professional offices are: Economic Office, Industrial Office, Investigation Office, GATT Office, Unfair Import Investigation Office, Trade Remedies Center, Administrative Judge's Office, General Counsel's Office, etc.

ITC investigation, also known as 337 investigation, refers to the investigation conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission under Section 337 of the U.S. Tariff Act of 1930 (Tariff Act of 1930) (hereinafter referred to as "337 provisions") and related amendments. The purpose is to prohibit all unfair competition practices or any unfair trade practices in products exported to the United States.

This kind of unfair behavior specifically refers to: the product enters the United States in an unfair competition manner or unfair behavior, or the owner, importer, or agent of the product sells the product in an unfair manner in the United States market, and causes material damage or threat of damage to related industries in the United States, or hinders the establishment of related industries in the United States, or suppresses and manipulates the commerce and trade of the United States, or infringe the legal and valid U.S. trademarks and patent rights, or infringe the exclusive right of integrated circuit chip layout design, or infringe other design rights protected by U.S. law, and the United States exists related industries or related industries are being established.

337 investigation is aimed at the infringement of US intellectual property rights by imported products and other unfair competition in the import trade.

At present, China has become the biggest victim of the "337 investigation" of the United States. In the related cases that have been judged, the losing rate of Chinese companies is as high as 60%, which is much higher than the world average of 26%.

The proportion of "337 surveys" initiated by the United States on China is also rising significantly, from 29.4 per cent in 2015 to 40.6 per cent in 2016, and this year to 48.1 per cent. The "337" survey in the United States is stepping up its investigation of Chinese goods.

The industries that received an increase in investigations in January 2017 were mainly electronic products, such as flash memory devices and liquid crystal electronics. According to the information on the website of the U.S. Department of Commerce, those who have designated the respondent as a natural person have withdrawn the lawsuit one after another, but those who have designated the respondent as an enterprise have been withdrawn and some have been found to have lost the lawsuit. The Ministry of Commerce did not give clear information on the reasons for losing the lawsuit.

Most of the "337" surveys are aimed at industries with high technological content. This is the highland of competitive industries in various countries. Simply put, it is to make your country's high-tech advantages more obvious and let your country's industries be at the forefront of the world. The method of competition.

　　http://money.163.com/17/0623/20/CNL4MDCK002581PQ.html