Laura Black Quoted on CFIUS and China ‘Chiplet’ Patent Purchase

For its article “Chip wars: How ‘chiplets’ are emerging as a core part of China’s tech strategy,” Reuters quoted Akin international trade senior counsel Laura Black. The article looks at Chinese company Chipuller’s acquisition of 28 patents—among them, those for technology used to package small semiconductors, or chiplets, to make a larger “brain”—through a two-step transfer, first through a British Virgin Islands-registered entity.

The article discusses how chiplet technology may help China in the face of U.S. export controls on chip technology and explores whether approval is required from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for these transactions due to potential national security concerns.

Along with other CFIUS lawyers, Laura, who served as Director of Policy and International Relations, CFIUS, Office of Investment Security, told Reuters that patent sales alone would not necessarily give CFIUS authority over the deal, as its jurisdiction depends on whether the assets purchased constitute a U.S. business.