Intel recently lost the sixth patent validity challenge in the lawsuit initiated by the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences back in 2018. IMECAS owns the FinFET patent and is now closer to obtaining $31 million from Intel plus a ban of all the Core processors from the Chinese market.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Chinese-Academy-of-Sciences-could-win-FinFET-infringement-case-against-Intel.562927.0.html
oh the irony...
The Chinese patent was applied for in August 2011. Intel presented its FinFET technology in May 2011.
The Chinese patent is so trash it even uses one of the SEM images that Intel used in its May 2011 presentation to illustrate their "invention" (basically using cut masks to separate transistors built one next to the other).
May this be a lesson for all those corporations that are looking to do business with the greedy dragon that is China.
It's a smart move. When indigenous 14nm production lines come online in China soon, banning Intel will allow made-in-China CPUs room to breathe. Otherwise Intel 5nm will just compete with homegrown 14nm, and the home grown wont survive.
Plan of CPC is obvious, stall Intel in China to allow homegrown 7nm to come online in the next few years. After that performance difference between 7nm and 5nm/3nm/2nm will be minimal mattering only in the mobile CPUs sectors where Intel won't even matter.
Even if China patented this first, and that's a big if, it would almost certainly only be because they stole the technology. Not only have they been known to steal technology and corporate secrets many, many times, but they're so far behind in semiconductor technology in general it just seems extremely unlikely they would have beat Intel to this, and yet still be so far behind. It also seems like if this were true, they'd be asking for a lot more money. I suspect the same that @Hunter2020 pointed at, which is that this is nothing more than a way to get rid of the competition as they ramp up their own CPU manufacturing. The timing is far too suspect to believe otherwise.
Lawsuits on what amounts to stupid little things in tech is now the norm. China is simply copying the US ways of using the courts as a business tool, even if the the motives aren't all that above board. A good example is the company called ParkerVision. They are still litigating patents from the early 2000's around power management and out of band signaling that they say is used on all cell phones. The company is now shut down after having zero revenue for over 10 years, but the lawsuits continue ad infinitum.
HAHAHAHA all the western fangirls here spewing propaganda, china will take over in tech by 2030 and there is nothing you can do about it, USA ban on huawei was a clear sign of fear and now china is doing the same in response you salty girls