
Micron Chip Sales Banned in China on Patent Case - jonknee
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-03/micron-chip-sales-banned-in-china-on-patent-case-rival-umc-says
======
bhouston
This is at the exact same time that Chinese-Taiwan competitors has replicated
Micro's core IP:

[https://www.eteknix.com/micron-claims-chinese-startup-has-
st...](https://www.eteknix.com/micron-claims-chinese-startup-has-stolen-
memory-secrets/)

Coincidence? Very much unlikely.

In many ways Trump's aggressive trade practices may be the only answer to this
if Trump focused on China. Unfortunately he seems to be focused on Europe and
Canada instead, which are small fry in the grand scheme of things. Fragmented
Europe and Canada are not fighting for economic world leadership in the way
that China is.

~~~
ajross
> In many ways Trump's aggressive trade practices may be the only answer to
> this if Trump focused on China.

That's circular, US "aggressive trade practices" (which means unilateral
tarrifs, let's not spin, please) came first, so making them "the only answer"
is sort of self-fulfilling.

Frankly it's much more likely that Chinese trade shenanigans like this are the
_result_ of the escalating trade war. The volatile climate makes "big steps"
like enjoining a whole foreign company more attractive as the relative threat
of retaliation is less. If you think your opponent is going to pull the
trigger, you shoot first.

Now we just have to wait for more, ahem, "aggressive trade practices" to be
announced by the White House, and we'll escalate further.

This is what a trade war looks like, folks.

~~~
nostromo
> US "aggressive trade practices" (which means unilateral tarrifs, let's not
> spin, please) came first

This just isn't true. China has not played fairly against the US in modern
history. Putting aside problems like currency manipulation, intellectual
property theft, and putting up barriers for foreign companies, they also
haven't played fair with regards to tariffs.

Take Elon Musk's word for it if you don't believe me: "an American car going
to China pays 25% import duty, but a Chinese car coming to the US only pays
2.5%, a tenfold difference"

[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/elon-musk-sides-with-
trump-o...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/08/elon-musk-sides-with-trump-on-
trade-with-china-citing-25-percent-import-duty-on-american-cars.html)

~~~
monocasa
No one plays fair in international trade. I mean, we've literally installed
dictators in countries to get better trade consideration. And recently thanks
to Snowden, we know that the NSA hacked AirBus to give Boeing an edge, and
appears to believe that the "economic security" of the US is a component of
their SIGINT domain.

I'm not really sure why we expect others to "play fair".

~~~
sephamorr
Do you have a source about that NSA/Airbus/Boeing comment? Would be
interesting to read.

~~~
nyolfen
nsa spied on airbus _along with german intelligence_ to see if they were
violating embargoes

~~~
monocasa
And then passed that information to Boeing.

------
funfunfunction
The claims in the article seem like hyperbole. The specifics of this sort of
thing are very difficult to know, though it does seem like there may have been
some state-enabled theft of intellectual property.

The key takeaway from this article for me is not the specifics of the case
involving Micron, but the attitude of the Chinese government toward non-
Chinese companies trying to compete in their country and their willingness to
use underhanded tactics to prevent fair competition if it means furthering the
agenda of a Chinese national actor.

We will have to wait to see how effective US tariffs are at preventing growth
of the Chinese economy, but I imagine that they will be viewed as too little
too late in the grand scheme of history.

------
onetimemanytime
A question: Chinese courts rule against Micron...appeal after appeal. Biased
or not, doesn't matter, a court ruling is a ruling. What options does Micron
have after exhausting their _China_ appeal options? I have a feeling we
already know how they'll rule.

I see bad times...China wants the tech and they'll get it. Stealing is much
faster and cheaper than spending tens of billions and decades in R&D

------
jonknee
> China accounted for more than 50 percent of Micron’s revenue in fiscal 2017,
> according company data.

The stock is getting absolutely hammered, down 7% and still going down:

[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/mu?p=mu](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/mu?p=mu)

~~~
adventured
Given the nature of the news, Micron dropping 5.5% definitely does not qualify
as getting absolutely hammered.

The Chinese won't be able to hold their position on the Micron case. ZTE dies
if they do.

~~~
oh-kumudo
ZTE is like dying anyway, even the netizens are joking they are subsiding an
American company now which has FBI oversee their operations.

It is just the whole trade war is going to unfold. It is definitely not easy
to win.

------
djsumdog
I'm glad I bought my DDR4 last month. Prices are already insanely high. I'm
paying almost double what I paid in 2016 for the same amount of ram. Does this
patent affect current production DRAM? Are we going to see prices go up even
more?

~~~
bhouston
I understand a couple very large Chinese factories are about to come online.
It should push prices quite a bit lower unless a trade war intervenes.

------
baybal2
So, it has begun. Imagine just how nice will it be, once they will go after
Qualcomms and Apples.

Will not happen you think? Back a few years, just as iPhone 5 began to ship,
an administrator of a bonded customs zone decided to detain all and every
Apple's shipment for a few weeks just to recheck all and every of their
papers, and to make a statement "I am a big man here." And nobody of higher
ups seemed to ever given a f##k about a single lowest tier official holding
few billion bucks of Apple's money hostage.

------
zeusk
I'd just like to point out that they released this at midnight in China/Taiwan
with hours before close of markets for 4th of July in US.

------
yuhong
Of note is that DRAMeXchange is in China I think too.

~~~
patfla
How is that of note?

------
dkrich
This article just reeks of BS. There is nothing officially substantiated
beyond a Micron competitor reporting that a single court issued a temporary
preliminary injunction. Micron has denied the report.

Given the obvious backlash China would face and the flimsiness of this
article, if I were a betting man I'd be buying up Micron stock on this dip. So
many things have to happen for this to result in a meaningful impact to
Micron's earnings that I'd take the other side of that bet.

~~~
bhouston
That competitor is a very serious threat to Micron. Thus this isn't likely
false if it indeed came from UMT, and wasn't a fake news release.

~~~
dkrich
I'm not necessarily saying that the report is false. More that lots of things
have to align in order for this to end with Micron losing significant market
share in China. The report has to be true and the injunction enacted and the
injunction has to hold up for an extended period of time.

Will be interesting to see what Micron says in the coming days. No doubt they
would have to publicly address it if they were served with an injunction.

------
pwaai
r/wsb is certainly taking this news well....

[https://i.redditmedia.com/r8e17LwuYxaAstKQy20-gHQAC717sHZxEA...](https://i.redditmedia.com/r8e17LwuYxaAstKQy20-gHQAC717sHZxEAEmzR59D_o.png?w=803&s=88ecf05d82ef6de12c820c8b74bcadbe)

~~~
patfla
I was wondering how r/wsb translates to options. Ah: wsb = wall street bets.
Indeed.

