Micron lawsuit claims Chinese memory maker YMTC poached its engineers, then sued it using its own stolen tech

Micron this month filed a lawsuit against China's 3D NAND champion YMTC, accusing it of poaching its leading engineers, illegally obtaining its NAND memory know-how from them, and then using that information to build its own non-volatile memory as well as its patent portfolio. The Boise, Idaho-based company further alleges that YMTC uses patents granted to its former employees to accuse Micron of patent infringements in various jurisdictions.

To assemble a comprehensive IP portfolio that would cover everything from essential technologies to sophisticated manufacturing methods quickly, as well as to ensure that its patents overlapped with those of other 3D NAND manufacturers to enable it to attack Micron, the firm asserts YMTC opted for a rather simple, yet effective strategy: It poached engineers from Micron, then made them patent either standard essential inventions or inventions that closely resembled those they worked on while at Micron.

To leave Micron without being asked questions, its former employees cited a broad range of …