Power-One, Artesyn digital power lawsuit: Apparently everybody won

First thing this morning California time Power-One sent out a press release with this attention-getting subject line:

 “POWER-ONE WINS INFRINGEMENT LAWSUIT ON DIGITAL POWER;

JURY UPHOLDS VALIDITY OF PATENTS AND FINDS ARTESYN INFRINGED KEY SYSTEM PATENT.”

One hour later, Emerson, which is the parent company of Artesy Technologies, sent a press release with this title:

“ARTESYN TURNS BACK POWER-ONE CLAIMS”.

 (These remind me of the quote from the movie, “Miss Congeniality: “We are all winners.”)

 For those of you not familiar with the lawsuit, Power-One claimed that Artesyn infringed on its patent that applies “to a digital power control system for controlling and monitoring an array of point of load regulators using a serial bus for communication with and control of the point of load regulators.”

 Power-One’s press release states that the jury found, “both of the two asserted patents to be valid and found that Power-One’s [patent] has been infringed by the Artesyn Technologies product.”

 However, the Artesyn release says, “[The] jury found that only one patent was infringed involving a product that Artesyn had never sold, never offered for sale and that the market has never used. …The jury specifically determined that any infringement was not willful. If the court enters judgment on the verdict, a total of $100 in damages will be awarded to Power-One."

 I called up both Artesyn and Power-One, but neither company was interested in discussing the lawsuit any further today; Power-One will be issuing a more detailed press release on Monday.