Alla Barbalat

State of CA is leading the way in #AI #legislation based on pioneering verbiage & thought leadership suggested by Tom Kemp.

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This story is about technology that's sure to affect everyone to some degree, no matter your grasp of the complexities. One of my favorite aspects of my job as a journalist is that it provides cover for asking brilliant people to explain difficult concepts in language a grade-schooler could understand. Here, Malcolm Penn (CEO and semiconductors analyst at Future Horizons) and Beau Jackson (lawyer leading Husch Blackwell LLP’s Section 337 practice) were especially helpful in clarifying, respectively, why anyone should care about the global market for gallium-nitride-based power semiconductor devices, and the role the U.S. International Trade Commission plays for small American companies that believe a foreign-based firm is undercutting its business with cheaper copies of patented inventions. I'm also grateful for the details provided by Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC - Efficient Power Conversion; EPC's external spokesperson, Scott Lindlaw of FGS Global; and Innoscience's external spokespersons at 514 Media Ltd. As the legal battles covered in the story develop, and as more companies in the GaN space turn to the courts to defend their innovations, I invite those involved in the field to message me directly with any insights or news tips. Meanwhile, a snippet of today's coverage, with the full story linked: --- A small California company is wielding patents in court and at a US trade agency to fortify its position in the battle for global supremacy over next-generation power semiconductor devices. EPC - Efficient Power Conversion Corp. scored a first-round win earlier this month in its effort to block imports of China-based Innoscience (Zhuhai) Technology Co.’s gallium nitride-based, or GaN-based, power semiconductor devices. A trade judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission upheld the validity of two EPC patents and found Innoscience’s devices infringe one of those, US Patent No. 8,350,294. EPC’s parallel federal lawsuit, filed in May 2023 over Innoscience’s alleged infringement of four patents—including the two at issue in the ITC case—is on hold until the agency has issued its final decision, which has a target date of Nov. 5. GaN-based technologies are changing the semiconductors game by offering improved performance across a wide range of applications including artificial intelligence and self-driving vehicles while reducing energy consumption and the required physical space compared to conventional silicon-based technologies. The market share for GaN-based technology is growing as it relates to the broader global semiconductor business, according to Grand View Research, Inc. reports. But even if Innoscience’s infringement is “a dead-cert bet” that results in ITC and court victories, the US company’s ability to parlay that to slow the competitor’s “global ambitions is another matter entirely,” said Malcolm Penn, CEO of the British semiconductor-analyst firm Future Horizons. Click for full coverage.

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