US ruling confirms Innoscience infringed Infineon's GaN patents, imposes import ban - digitimes

The US International Trade Commission's final determination confirms that Chinese GaN chipmaker Innoscience infringed on Infineon's patents, maintaining an import ban against the company. This ruling ... Read original →

The ITC’s ruling does more than block Innoscience’s U.S. GaN imports—it forces a technical recalibration across the power electronics stack. Downstream adopters in fast-charging and data centers must now requalify designs with compliant vendors like Infineon or Navitas, inflating NRE costs. For Chinese GaN firms, IP due diligence—FTO analyses, patent landscaping, and cross-licensing—shifts from optional to existential. Infineon leverages this win to reinforce pricing power in the 650V GaN segment, while rivals like Wolfspeed and TI will likely tighten their own patent fences, constraining Chinese export pathways. Over the next 18 months, U.S.-China tech friction will increasingly manifest through IP litigation, compelling China’s GaN sector to pivot from capacity-led growth to patent-density competition. Firms lacking defensible IP portfolios will face de facto market exclusion, regardless of device performance.