Source: Content comes from the official account "Enterprise Patent Observation", author: Wu Zheng, thank you.
SMIC (SMIC) is setting a new record for the speed of listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
On June 1, the application for listing of SMIC on the Science and Technology Innovation Board was officially accepted.
On June 4, the Listing Committee issued the first round of inquiries, setting the fastest record since the opening of the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
On Saturday, June 6, SMIC completed the text preparation of the first round of inquiry and comments.
On Sunday, June 7, the Listing Committee announced the reply from SMIC to the first round of inquiries.
institutions predict that at this speed, they can be launched in July.
It seems that and time race have become the norm after the decoupling of the semiconductor industry in China and the United States.
also read more than 1,000 pages of prospectus and first round of inquiries as soon as possible, and also scanned the 530-page patent list one by one. But after reading it, I felt the same as expected, and it was just the same, without any outstanding characteristics.
As an IP person, most wants to learn three aspects from the prospectus: patented technology, non-patent technology (trade secret), and the latest process .
, but SMIC did everything you want to show you in the prospectus (530 pages patent list), and you don’t want to let you know only a few words (a single paragraph of business secret management system), and you don’t want to reveal anything at all (the most advanced process progress).
is different from Huawei's rising communication field. has established the strength and status of integrated circuit manufacturing in the field of integrated circuit manufacturing, which is far more than patents. Looking back at history, several heavyweight players who control the integrated circuit manufacturing industry, Intel, AMD/GF, TSMC , Samsung, IBM, plus SMIC , has defined the IP characteristics of industrial development as "internalized in business secrets and externalized in patent layout" , and iterative trial and error in processing and manufacturing processes and talent experience are often more important. Therefore, there are sometimes cooperation between giants and sometimes patent litigation.
For example, in the 3nm process, Samsung is cooperating with companies such as IBM.
Last year, the patent litigation war between Grocephon Delta and TSMC was also a thunder and a little rain, and finally ended with a settlement between the two parties.
SMIC was sued for patent infringement and trade secrets by TSMC in 2003, and the final loss became the last straw that crushed Zhang Rujing, the founder of SMIC .
includes the patent lawsuit filed by the US NPE in 2019 mentioned in the prospectus of SMIC. The four US patents involved in the case were purchased by the NPE from AMD. After replacing the sale, it sued several major manufacturers, including SMIC .
So the worst case of patent litigation is just cede land compensation. For example, the battle between SMIC and TSMC has successively compensated US$375 million, plus paid TSMC 68% of the equity and 2% of the equity.
, but it is not enough to affect the life and death of enterprises. is the more deadly factor in the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. This coincides with the three major factors that SMIC believes in the "challenges faced by the industry" in the prospectus. From another perspective, it can also be considered that even SMIC itself thinks that "patent" is not a challenge to the industry.
So, don't be fascinated by the 530-page patent. Only if is not disclosed outside the prospectus, it is the real SMIC . Perhaps this is the key to determining how fast it can be (the latest process) and how far it can be (the trade secret).
On the one hand, regarding the latest process, only one sentence was disclosed in the prospectus:
"In order to shorten the gap with the world's most advanced process, the company has continuously increased its R&D investment in advanced processes, and has successively completed the research and development of the 28-nanometer HKC+ process and the first generation 14-nanometer FinFET process and achieved mass production. The research and development of the second generation FinFET process is also in progress, and at the same time, it is constantly expanding the mature process application platform. However, the N+1 generation (maybe between 7nm-10nm) and N+2 generations rumored online in advanced processes after 14nm.
shows that under the current situation, SMIC is still relatively cautious. It is as confidential as possible for pre-research technologies. At least when most of the core components are still implemented by import, it is still important to maintain normal operation. Who knows if SMIC is the next Huawei?
On the other hand, in the field of integrated circuit manufacturing, when the basic structure is determined, the experience in process flow, control, management, trial and error is often the core technical know-how of each enterprise, and it requires a large number of professional talents to continuously explore to achieve the optimal effect.
The research and development focus of future technologies by various giants will continue to focus on improving power consumption ratio and size reduction, as well as the parasitic effects brought about by introducing more advanced EUV lithography technology and the use of new materials to achieve industrialization of key nodes.
So this field of trade secrets is actually an IP asset , which is more important than patents. Patents can play a role in areas where structures are prone to reverse engineering, but in other fields, they are not as protected as commercial secrets.
can be seen from the case of TSMC v. SMIC infringement of trade secrets.
When Zhang Rujing founded SMIC , he led a group of original departments from SDAQ (which already belongs to SMIC ). These people have become accustomed to the management methods of SMIC in terms of factory operation model and process flow, and naturally brought it to SMIC , resulting in the end SMIC being convicted of stealing business secrets.
The technology battle between TSMC and Samsung also reflects the importance of trade secrets. After Liang Mengsong, who left TSMC , joined Samsung, he narrowed the gap with TSMC on 45nm, 32nm and 28nm, and made a significant contribution to Samsung's big leap forward on 14nm. Therefore, it subsequently triggered a lawsuit against Liang Mengsong by TSMC on and obtained court support.
Therefore, the part that the prospectus can better reflect the value of SMIC IP is hidden in the following half page.
Although this half page simply discloses the non-patent technology (trade secret) management model of SMIC , or a universal corporate business secret management method, it can still be seen that SMIC attaches great importance to this area.
First of all, it is information hierarchical management. SMIC internally classifies all data at a confidential level. Secondly, implements partition management. realizes physical isolation of production areas, office confidential areas and ordinary areas. third, confidential data management. further refined the confidential office areas, and formulated a confidential area protection policy that can effectively implement from the five main control directions of "people, materials, objects, laws, and environment". Pay attention to "effective execution". Many companies also have confidentiality methods, but it is greatly discounted during the execution stage. This does not exist in SMIC .
is fourth, uses a new way to store evidence. adopts a "paperless" cloud storage method for confidential information and data. It seems to be a way to store confidential data and use evidence from the perspective of confidential personnel management, which is often seen in commercial secret disputes, and further eliminates the behavior of core personnel to copy away confidential information from the hard disk.
fifth, adopts a strict censorship model. achieves "review every time you are out, and it will not be missed", and continues to work hard on execution. : Sixth, enhance employees' awareness of confidentiality. provides better protection of intellectual property rights by regularly conducting information security training for employees. This will prevent similar incidents from happening.
, you can know that SMIC will actually perform confidentiality work internally.
, this pair of , SMIC, , can achieve continuous breakthroughs in the underlying theory and positive research and development of integrated circuit manufacturing in the future, laying a more lasting and longer-term development foundation.
*Disclaimer: This article is original by the author. The content of the article is the author's personal opinion. The reprint of the Semiconductor Industry Observer is only to convey a different view, and does not mean that the Semiconductor Industry Observer agrees or supports this view. If you have any objections, please contact the Semiconductor Industry Observer.
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