Chip meeting aims to prevent glut, boost fair competition

SEOUL, Sept. 23 (Yonhap) -- The world's leading semiconductor manufacturers plan
to discuss ways to prevent overproduction and enforce fair competition at an
industry-wide annual meeting on Jeju Island, the government said Wednesday.

The Government-Authorities Meeting on Semiconductors (GAMS) that will be held on
Thursday will be attended by state and private sector representatives from South
Korea, the United States, Japan, the European Union, Chinese Taipei and China,
the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said.
The six economies account for 90 percent of the world's semiconductor market,
that stood at roughly US$250 billion in 2008.
The ministry in charge of the country's industrial policy said business leaders,
representatives from chipmakers' associations and government officials will touch
on overproduction as the market starts to post growth, illegal copying of
technologies, abuse of legal actions and need for transparency in economic
stimulus programs.
The latter can be construed as unfair state support that distorts trade and can
lead to trade disputes down the road.
"The United States has poured large amount of public funds into the semiconductor
sector in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, (a move which) may
trigger calls for transparency by other countries," said a government source.
Other issues that will receive attention is a move that may permit China to join
the duty-free arrangement for multi-chip package units that are used in mobile
phones.
South Korea, which is the chair of the Jeju meeting, meanwhile, will ask other
countries to curb unnecessary legal actions on alleged patent rights violations
that inhibit trade, and highlight the need to guard against so-called patent
trolls.
Patent trolls refer to companies that do not usually make products but have
bought intellectual property rights for key technologies.
Such companies ask for higher intellectual property right fees that can raise
overall costs for manufacturers and exert negative influence on the development
of new technologies.
South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics reported
being engaged in 224 patent rights-related disputes in the first half of 2009
from just 50 for the whole of 1998.
Besides government officials, representatives from the Korea Semiconductor
Industry Association, and its counterparts in the U.S., European, Japanese and
Chinese counterparts are to be present at the one-day meeting at the resort
island off the southern coast of South Korea.
GAMS, founded in 1999, holds a meeting every year so industry leaders can address
outstanding issues facing the global semiconductor market and discuss such
agendas as future market conditions, intellectual property rights and regulation
of respective members that can have impact on the business and trade.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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