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Micron - reputation as a company

KingFatty

KingFatty

Diamond Member
Saw this snipped on a blog, and got me thinking. I don't have any opinion on Micron's reputation as a company, but does anyone else have any more information on how they conduct themselves?

Micron has an interesting reputation in the patent sphere. In 2011, the company stopped hiring University of Illinois engineers because the university had sued Micron for patent infringement. The company also has an (apparently) ongoing back-end deal with Round Rock to enforce more than 1,000 of its patents.
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See: http://patentlyo.com/patent/2014/02/plaintiffs-welcome-shifting.html
 
They're trying to not pay a patent troll, just like every other large technology-based company operating in the U.S.. Just skimp through a few other articles on that blog, and you can see the guy is total shill, against every control on patents, and for every single patent owner, including trolls that do nothing put stop innovation before it can begin.
 
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I was thinking more along the lines of Micron's refusal to hire engineers from University of Illinois.

I mean, isn't that like punishing the son for the sins of the father? If the university sued Micron, that's one thing, but why take it out on all the engineers from that school, it wasn't their fault? I'd hate to be going to a school and find out my desired employer has simply blacklisted new hires from the entire school. It just sounds a bit harsh and vindictive, so I'm wondering if it's a larger pattern of behavior from Micron?
 
Dunno. But, what was the cause of the patent being infringed upon? Did Micron's board go, "they'll never know," or maybe some naive engineer decided to put in place a process he knew about from school? Both are at polar unrealistic spectrum ends, but if reality seemed closer to the latter end from Micron's PoV, the school is failing at their job of providing a well-rounded education for engineers, and that could make them risky for employers.

I'm not saying that is the case, but it is a possibility. OTOH, Micron could just be like LSI, too: great technology, with good customer support, backed by clever sociopaths you wouldn't be proud to be associated with 🙂.
 
My understanding is that Micron infringed on technology that was owned/patented by the University of Illinois, without paying a licensing fee or other arrangement. The university sued Micron to stop their tech from being used without a licensing fee. Micron got upset at the university, so to punish the university, Micron blacklisted hiring engineers from the university.

So it seems unfair to punish the students in that situation.

As to what caused the alleged infringement, that could be accidental, or it could be that there is no infringement, or it could be there is infringement on purpose, or there could be infringement but the patent is invalid and should be tossed out.
 
That working with the university and who owns what is probably a gray area. It's up to the courts to decide who it belongs to. As for their actions of what happened afterwards. If there is a lawsuit happening, of course you stop working with each other.
 
razel said:
If there is a lawsuit happening, of course you stop working with each other.
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In my mind, the "each other" part is Micron and the university (or specific college and/or whatever entity is responsible for the lawsuit). I just don't put the students in that same category, after they graduate from that University, the students have/had no control over the lawsuit and are just innocent bystanders.
 
I want to have a high opinion of them, but my company has encountered bad batches of M400/C400 SSDs, and the power consumption of the M500 is going in the wrong direction (higher power consumption than previous gen). I got burned a bit on the 2nd gen SSD years ago, 3rd gen was really good, 4th gen was good when it didn't fail in the first month, 5th gen passed.

We use SanDisk now, and have not had near the problems, and very impressive power consumption
 
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razel said:
. If there is a lawsuit happening, of course you stop working with each other.
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Because hiring a UofI grad might just be hiring a UofI spy. Think about it. In their tech department, the professors juuuuust might have a stake in the outcome of the lawsuit, or at least a biased opinion of it... that would pass through to their students. Students that graduate from any University are products of that University... why would Micron allow that camel's nose under their tent?

It's simply Micron protecting themselves, and I don't blame them.
 
RU482 said:
I want to have a high opinion of them, but my company has encountered bad batches of M400/C400 SSDs, and the power consumption of the M500 is going in the wrong direction (higher power consumption than previous gen). I got burned a bit on the 2nd gen SSD years ago, 3rd gen was really good, 4th gen was good when it didn't fail in the first month, 5th gen passed.

We use SanDisk now, and have not had near the problems, and very impressive power consumption
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The M4 was good for its time, against JMicron, earlier Sandforce, and the like, but was definitely not issue free (even Intel's weren't!), even if you didn't have one of those bad batches. The V4, OTOH...what were they smoking (slow, buggy, and not cheap)? The M500 is definitely not the best mobile drive. I think they just ceded that to others, this go-round, though it seems to be working for them.

As long as you use their Marvell SSDs, like the Ultra Plus (is X110 the same?), Extreme II (or X210), Sandisk are pretty awesome, though. I just wish they'd just ditch their SF series and slow U1x0 series.
 
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Would you continue to work with someone that tried to sue you? I sure wouldn't. Its not about vindictive behaviour, its a question of trust between two parties being destroyed. You don't end up in legal action straight away, you end up in court after you failed to resolve a problem, then your lawyers failed to solve the problem. Once you get to the point of talking through the lawyers and making your case to a judge there is no relationship to salvage. Neither party trusts the other so the relationship has to end. Doesn't matter if the University was right or not, that final step of a public lawsuit ends a relationship for good.
 
Would you hire a recent student graduate, if his grandfather sued you? The grandson could be a spy for the grandfather, who knows what that grandson could be up to.

But then again, the blood-bond between a grandfather and grandson is stronger, I think, than the bond and allegiance that develops between students who graduated from a university, and that university. From a legal perspective, it's probably best to drop the banhammer on anyone with any inkling of a relationship, no matter how tenuous.
 
KingFatty said:
Would you hire a recent student graduate, if his grandfather sued you? The grandson could be a spy for the grandfather, who knows what that grandson could be up to.

But then again, the blood-bond between a grandfather and grandson is stronger, I think, than the bond and allegiance that develops between students who graduated from a university, and that university. From a legal perspective, it's probably best to drop the banhammer on anyone with any inkling of a relationship, no matter how tenuous.
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I agree. If someone is suing me and I find out that a potential employee has a shred of relationship with the litigator then that employee is removed from the pool without a second thought.

In today's litigious society it's not worth the risk.
 
RU482 said:
I want to have a high opinion of them, but my company has encountered bad batches of M400/C400 SSDs, and the power consumption of the M500 is going in the wrong direction (higher power consumption than previous gen). I got burned a bit on the 2nd gen SSD years ago, 3rd gen was really good, 4th gen was good when it didn't fail in the first month, 5th gen passed.

We use SanDisk now, and have not had near the problems, and very impressive power consumption
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M4 definitely had some issues. Seen a good handful fail. Haven't seen it with the M500, though.
 
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