Asian Tech Press (Feb 28) -- A Chinese chipmaker blacklisted by the United States has gotten a chance to prove in court that it was wrongly accused.

Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd., a China-based semiconductor company, goes on trial Monday in San Francisco to fight criminal charges of economic espionage and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. chipmaker Micron Technology Inc., Bloomberg reported.

The chips at issue in the trial are dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, not the semiconductors that are in short supply and hindering shipments of personal computers.

The Trump administration filed a lawsuit in October 2018 against Jinhua, Taiwan's UMC and three individuals, accusing the two companies of allegedly stealing intellectual property and trade secrets from Micron Technology, causing $8.75 billion in damages to it.

That month, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a sales ban against the Chinese memory chip company, placing it on a list of export control for endangering U.S. national security and interests, prohibiting U.S. companies from selling technology and products to Jinhua.

Even if Jinhua wins the case, it will still have to face U.S. restrictions on technologies critical to chip production, Bloomberg said.