Patent Chief Orders Chinese Firm to Justify Micron Challenges

The head of the US Patent and Trademark Office ordered a Chinese semiconductor company to explain why its petitions to invalidate Micron Technologies Inc. patents shouldn’t be tossed due to the firm’s inclusion on a national security risk list.

Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. must show cause as to why adjudicating their challenges is an appropriate use of the office’s “limited resources,” Director John Squires wrote in a Nov. 10 order, citing YMTC’s listing on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List.

The order is the latest in a yearslong fight between the two semiconductor companies spanning federal courts ...