2025-06-27: Taiwan Launches LOT Alliance to Fortify Semiconductor and Tech Industry Against Patent Trolls
South Korea: Naver and Kakao Shares Surge on Government-Driven AI Initiatives
Good Morning,
Below are some of the most important developments in the artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and cloud computing sectors in Asia today.
▪️ Philippines: Meta Copyright Lawsuit Dismissal Highlights Ongoing Legal Battles Over AI Training Data
Copyright lawsuits over AI training datasets are reshaping legal interpretations of fair use and prompting scrutiny of major technology companies’ development practices.
▪️ South Korea: Global EUV Lithography Race Reshapes Semiconductor Industry Leadership
Major economies are investing heavily in extreme ultraviolet lithography to secure their positions in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
▪️ South Korea: Naver and Kakao Shares Surge on Government-Driven AI Initiatives
Korean tech giants Naver and Kakao have experienced a surge in investor interest amid ambitious government AI initiatives.
▪️ Vietnam: Vietnam Enacts Comprehensive Personal Data Protection Law with Strict Penalties and Sector-Specific Obligations
Vietnam’s new Personal Data Protection Law will govern the collection, storage, use, and transfer of personal information across all sectors.
▪️ Taiwan: Nvidia Shareholders Meeting Drives AI Sector Rally and Boosts Taiwan Market Amid Geopolitical and Fed Developments
Nvidia’s upcoming shareholders meeting and broader market developments drove shifts in Taiwan’s futures and equity markets.
▪️ South Korea: Micron’s Record HBM Growth Outpaces Expectations Amid AI-Driven Demand
Micron achieved record-breaking third-quarter results in fiscal year 2025 driven by surging demand for high-value memory products.
▪️ South Korea: The Emergence of Won-Based Stablecoins and Financial Stability Challenges
The rise of stablecoins and their potential impact on financial stability has drawn increased scrutiny from central banks and private sector leaders.
▪️ Taiwan: Taiwan Launches LOT Alliance to Fortify Semiconductor and Tech Industry Against Patent Trolls
Taiwan’s semiconductor and broader tech sector has launched the LOT Industry Alliance to defend its patents and intellectual property against non-practicing entities.
For more information on these developments, please see the full report below.
Thanks for reading,
Rodney J Johnson
Today's Developments
Widely Reported On Issues of Importance
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Meta Copyright Lawsuit Dismissal Highlights Ongoing Legal Battles Over AI Training Data
Copyright lawsuits over AI training datasets are reshaping legal interpretations of fair use and prompting scrutiny of major technology companies’ development practices.
A federal district court in San Francisco dismissed a copyright infringement lawsuit by 13 book authors against Meta Platforms, concluding that the plaintiffs failed to articulate a valid legal claim. US District Judge Vince Chhabria clarified that his ruling did not endorse Meta’s training methods but addressed defects in the authors’ pleadings. The suit alleged that Meta had accessed copyrighted books from pirated online repositories to train its Llama AI model without authorization or compensation.
The plaintiffs—among them Sarah Silverman, Jacqueline Woodson, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Junot Díaz—argued that Meta’s process effectively read their memoirs and novels, including Silverman’s The Bedwetter and Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, then integrated elements of those texts into Llama’s capabilities without licensing agreements.
They contended that this behavior amounted to unlawful copying and undermined the market for their work.
Meta responded that the US fair use doctrine permits transformative use and that Llama does not store or reproduce full passages of copyrighted text.
Instead, it analyzes statistical patterns to generate original outputs. The company asserted that fair use plays a central role in AI research and innovation, aligning with precedents that allow copyrighted material for machine learning.
Although Judge Chhabria granted Meta’s motion to dismiss, he expressed concern about AI firms routinely drawing on large copyrighted datasets without permission.
He invited future plaintiffs to present more detailed factual allegations and legal theories, indicating that a well-pleaded complaint might survive a pretrial challenge. His ruling applies only to the named authors, leaving open the possibility of additional suits by other writers whose works formed part of Meta’s training corpus.
In a parallel case in the same district, plaintiffs accused AI firm Anthropic of infringing copyrights with its Claude model.
A different judge there accepted transformative use as a defense but permitted the lawsuit to proceed to trial. Together, these decisions illustrate a district-wide trend in defining fair use limits for AI training and balancing technological advancement against copyright protections.
The Meta case record also revealed internal company discussions about the ethical and legal risks of relying on pirated datasets and included a compelled deposition of CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
These disclosures reflect the heightened corporate scrutiny over data sources and the potential impact of litigation on AI development practices.
IMPACT ANALYSIS
From this Development, various impacts could cascade through the system, to a lesser or greater extent, depending on the severity and criticality of the shocks.
BOTTOM LINE
Judicial handling of AI–copyright disputes is likely to become more uneven and time-consuming, stretching court dockets, delaying contract enforcement actions, and contributing to a lower U.S. ease-of-doing-business ranking for legal frameworks.
High-profile litigation against Meta and Anthropic will intensify calls for new AI data regulations, lengthen the approval cycle for AI products, encourage companies to postpone digital investments, and prompt economists to revise down U.S. potential GDP growth projections.
Internal disclosures about Meta’s use of pirated datasets and the CEO’s compelled testimony will erode confidence in AI firms’ governance practices, trigger cuts to capital-expenditure plans—especially in data-intensive R&D—and raise the likelihood of insolvencies among smaller sector players.
Uncertainty over fair use criteria will deter large enterprises from scaling up AI deployments and push SMEs toward generic digital tools, undermining the growth and five-year survival prospects of AI startups and reducing the pace of new unicorn formations.
Mixed judicial signals on copyright and training data will make patent offices and corporate legal teams more cautious, slowing the rate of AI-related patent grants and the conversion of patents into marketable products, which in turn may weigh on U.S. high-tech export performance.
As proprietary data practices face heightened legal risk, a growing shift toward open-source datasets and frameworks will strengthen the public–private research ecosystem, accelerating total-factor productivity gains across the technology sector.
Public concerns triggered by these lawsuits will drive mandates for clearer labels on AI-generated content, broadening audience exposure to diverse information sources and reducing the prevalence of misinformation beliefs.
Policymakers and civil-society groups will press for more rigorous algorithmic transparency and fact-check amplification measures, leading to lower rates of content misrepresentation and helping to rebuild trust in news media and digital platforms.
References for this Development
US judge sides with Meta in AI training copyright case
The Manila Times | English | News
Copyright lawsuit against Meta over AI training dismissed
Inquirer Net | English | News
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Global EUV Lithography Race Reshapes Semiconductor Industry Leadership
Major economies are investing heavily in extreme ultraviolet lithography to secure their positions in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.
The United States has mobilized over $5 billion in public and private resources to accelerate domestic EUV lithography capabilities through the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) at the Albany Nanotech complex.
Backed by a government fund, the NSTC has installed EUV equipment and will begin offering R&D services next month to more than 100 member organizations, including Nvidia, Intel, and Apple. This initiative consolidates advanced lithography research and supports prototype development for advanced nodes.
Japan is pursuing a parallel strategy by establishing an EUV-equipped research facility at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
Scheduled to begin operations by 2027, the facility will strengthen Japan’s foundry services and system semiconductor segments. Collaboration with Intel will integrate technical expertise and bolster the broader semiconductor ecosystem.
By contrast, South Korea’s government-driven semiconductor R&D efforts have stalled due to budget constraints.
Plans to launch a Korean equivalent of imec with cutting-edge technology have yet to materialize, and the planned mini fabs in Yongin will rely on argon fluoride (ArF) immersion lithography rather than EUV. With a total equipment budget of around 30 billion won—far below the more than 200 billion won cost of a single EUV system—next-generation lithography deployment has been delayed.
Domestic small and medium MP&E firms in South Korea struggle to access overseas EUV facilities because of high usage fees and logistical challenges.
As a result, they remain dependent on older-generation lithography platforms and cannot pursue advanced node development, a gap that industry stakeholders warn could undermine South Korea’s competitiveness against global peers.
Industry representatives call for enhanced R&D infrastructure and financing to support EUV adoption in South Korea.
They argue that continued reliance on outdated lithography tools and restricted access to EUV may jeopardize the country’s long-term semiconductor roadmap amid rapid scaling of advanced node capabilities by geopolitical competitors.
References for this Development
美·日 첨단 반도체 장비 갖출때…韓 예산 부족 '구세대 장비' 도입
ET News | Local Language | News
SK Group surpasses Samsung in 2024 operating profit for the first time
Chosun Ilbo | English | News
최태원·SK '실트론 사익편취' 공정위 제재 취소…“사업기회 제공행위 인정 어려워”
ET News | Local Language | News
사업의지 꺾였나...SK일렉링크, 지분 매각 이어 최저가 입찰
Has the Will to Operate Faltered... SK Elic Link Continues Selling Shares and Submits Lowest Bid
Maekyung | Local Language | News
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