McDermott Will & Emery: Patent Case Results in Favorable Jury Verdict for Linear Technology
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Today, a unanimous jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Delaware awarded total victory to McDermott client Linear Technology
(Nasdaq:LLTC) on its claim against Monolithic Power Systems for
infringement of two energy saving voltage regulator patents that have
seen wide industry acceptance. The jury found that Monolithic infringed
all nine asserted claims of Linear’s U.S.
patents 5, 481,178 and 6,580,258, and also found that none of those
claims are invalid. Linear sued Monolithic immediately after release of
the accused Monolithic regulator product and Monolithic stopped selling
while the case moved forward. In view of Monolithic's self-imposed
'preliminary injunction', its sales were minimal after commencement of
the suit, so nominal damages were stipulated.
Monolithic's accused MP1543 product in this case was a follow-on product
released not long after Linear's prior ITC complaint against an earlier
Monolithic product was resolved by a Consent Order against Monolithic.
In settling the prior ITC case, Monolithic also agreed to additional
contractual undertakings regarding future products. Linear separately
claimed that in addition to being a patent infringement, that post
settlement product was a breach of the settlement. The breach of
contract claim was denied by the judge and never reached the jury.
Linear Corporate and IP Attorney John England said, "We are gratified
that the jury has recognized the validity of Linear's energy saving
voltage regulator patents and has also found that Monolithic's second
unjustified attempt to enter this field based on Linear's technology
violates the Patent Laws. We respectfully disagree with the judge's
determination that it does not also violate our previous settlement
agreement and we plan to appeal that ruling. Linear continues to have a
significant commitment to funding research and development of beneficial
new technology."
The Delaware court will eventually schedule a separate hearing on
Monolithic's assertion that even though the patents are valid and
infringed, they are unenforceable for inequitable conduct in their
procurement. Such charges have been unsuccessfully raised by other
infringers of these patents.
Linear Technology Corporation, a manufacturer of high performance linear
integrated circuits, was founded in 1981, became a public company in
1986 and joined the S&P 500 index of major public companies in 2000.
Linear Technology products include high performance amplifiers,
comparators, voltage references, monolithic filters, linear regulators,
DC-DC converters, battery chargers, power supply modules, data
converters, communications interface circuits, RF signal conditioning
circuits, and many other analog functions. Applications for Linear
Technology’s high performance circuits include
telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products such as
optical switches, notebook and desktop computers, computer peripherals,
video/multimedia, industrial instrumentation, security monitoring
devices, high-end consumer products such as digital cameras and MP3
players, complex medical devices, automotive electronics, factory
automation, process control, and military and space systems. For more
information, visit www.linear.com.
www.mwe.com © 2008 McDermott Will & Emery. McDermott Will
& Emery conducts its practice through separate legal entities in each of
the countries where it has offices. This communication may be considered
attorney advertising. Previous results are not a guarantee of future
outcome.
