高科技產業專利侵權個案-以台積電與中芯國際之專利侵權訴訟案為例

Abstract

三十年前，台灣仿冒風氣極為興盛，更被國際譏笑為「仿冒王國」，就如同現今中國的山寨文化，然而隨著國際對智慧財產權重視程度與日俱增，廠商之間競爭模式早已演變成，專利不只是保護智慧財產權的工具，更是商場上的戰爭武器。本個案研究希望透過發生自2003年之半導體大廠專利訴訟案---台積電與中芯國際之訴訟戰爭，了解訟訴戰爭的脈絡以及分析半導體大廠如何透過訴訟案，達到其商業策略之目的。本研究著重於三項目標：(1)清楚呈述台積電與中芯國際專利訴訟案之過程 (2)透過提起訟訴，協助企業達成商業目的之可能性之分析 (3)專利訴訟案對被告與原告之財務影響。

Thirty years ago, Taiwan had long been recognized as the “copy empire” due to the trend of imitating industry-wide. However, along with the growing emphasis and high valuation on Intellectual property rights around the world, the protection of the IP rights have already become not only the protection but a mean of weapon in the competition among companies across industries. Based on the case of the litigation between the tycoons TSMC and SMIC, through the context, we gain a chance to see how semiconductor firms using IP rights to protect and compete, also, we breakdown the knowledge behind the lawsuits. This study addresses and analyzes three main issues on the case: (1) The background of the Patent rights litigation. (2) The usage of patent lawsuit to make effect the business strategies. (3) How patent lawsuits influence the defendant company (SMIC) and its partners financially.