The war of words -- and lawsuits -- between China's and Taiwan's semiconductor industries continues. This time its China's SMIC that is suing TSMC in a Bejing court for alleged "unfair competition" and "commercial defamation".

By filing the case in Beijing, SMIC will give Chinese judges a big voice in a politically sensitive dispute affecting two technology champions from rival sides of the Taiwan Strait, argues the Financial Times.

The lawsuit also raises the interesting possibility that US and Chinese courts could come to different conclusions as to who has hurt whom.

SMIC and TSMC first clashed in the law courts over patent issues in 2004. After an uneasy truce, the dispute has flared up again this year when TSMC sued SMIC in the US, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of a previous settlement.

See this EngagingChina story for more.

Technorati : SMIC, TSMC, china, intellectual property, legal, semiconductors