Litigation updates:
O2Micro: "On September 30, 2008, based on information and belief that O2Micro had alleged to a customer that certain of the Company’s inverter controller products infringe O2Micro’s patents, the Company filed for declaratory judgment relief in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (“NDCal Court”) against O2Micro that those products do not infringe O2Micro’s 6,856,519 (‘519) patent family and the patents are invalid. O2Micro filed a counterclaim, alleging infringement of the ‘519 patent family and U.S. Patent No. 7,417,382 (‘382 patent). Trial in the NDCal Court case is scheduled to begin on August 2, 2010.
On December 15, 2008, O2Micro filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission, alleging that certain of the Company’s products infringe O2Micro’s ‘519 patent family and the ‘382 patent (“ITC Investigation”). The ITC Investigation hearing is scheduled to begin on October 19, 2009.
After the Company had identified the prior art and inequitable conduct arguments concerning the ‘519 patent family, O2Micro agreed to dismiss its claims of infringement with regard to those patents and to covenant that it would not sue either the Company or its customers in the future for infringement of those patents. On June 22, 2009, the Administrative Law Judge issued an order to terminate the ITC Investigation as to the ‘519 patent family. On July 14, 2009, the NDCal Court issued an order dismissing with prejudice, the claims for relief concerning the ‘519 patent family. Accordingly, the only patent at issue in both the ITC Investigation and the NDCal Court case is the ‘382 patent."
Chip Advanced Technology Inc.: "On December 12, 2007, the Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Chip Advanced Technology Inc. (“CAT”), asserting that CAT willfully infringed a MPS patent that enables efficient low voltage, low current power conversions, such as DC-DC step down converters. CAT was subsequently acquired by ITE Technology (“ITE”), which became a successor in interest to CAT. On July 28, 2009, the Company entered into a license agreement and a settlement agreement with ITE in which the parties agreed to mutually release and dismiss the complaints." (Editor's note: Patent at issue was US 6,897,643, "Integrated circuit driver having stable bootstrap power supply.")
