Applied Materials Reinforces Its Brand Amid Export Reckoning
Feb/17/2026
Applied Materials is sharpening both its intellectual property and its compliance posture at a pivotal moment for the semiconductor industry. In early February, the company filed new U.S. trademarks for SPECTRAL, following a prior application for SPECTRA, covering wafer-processing chambers and related software used to deposit chemical elements on semiconductor substrates—tools central to next-generation chip fabrication. The filings come days after the firm agreed to pay a $252.5 million penalty to the U.S. Department of Commerce to settle allegations that it improperly exported equipment ultimately destined for China’s SMIC, a sanctioned entity. While the Justice Department and SEC closed related probes without action, regulators concluded that shipments routed through South Korea still fell under U.S. export controls. For a company that posted record revenue of $27.2 billion in 2024 and serves industry leaders such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung, the episode underscores the tightrope facing American chip-equipment makers: innovating aggressively for the AI era while navigating an increasingly fraught geopolitical and regulatory landscape.
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