Monolithic Power Systems claims court win in Linear case

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- 7/4/2008

Monolithic Power Systems (MPS), a leading fabless manufacturer of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, said Thursday that the United States District Court for the District of Delaware issued judgment that MPS did not breach its October 1, 2005 settlement and license agreement with Linear Technology Corp. 

MPS said it will seek recovery of the attorney fees and costs from Linear.

Linear did not return calls for comment from Electronic News.

Linear took MPS to court in August 2006, alleging its competitor breached a settlement agreement that ended a previous investigation of MPS by the International Trade Commission. Linear also alleged infringement of US Patent Numbers 5,481,178 and 6,580,258 at the time.

According to MPS, the Delaware court also found that MPS had not willfully infringed the patent claims asserted by Linear against its MP1543 synchronous rectified step-up converter product. MPS had discontinued the sales of that product more than 18 months earlier.

The court further found that MPS had not indirectly infringed Linear's asserted patent claims and that Linear had failed to introduce any evidence of infringement by any MPS customer, MPS said.

However, according to MPS, the jury returned a verdict that an evaluation board containing the MP1543 product had directly infringed the asserted patent claims and that Linear's patents are valid. The two companies had stipulated to a total of $10 in patent infringement damages in the event that Linear prevailed in that dispute.

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