We should hear from SSTI soon.
Here's the response. If management's to be believed, it sounds like a non-event.
biz.yahoo.com
SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct.17, 2000--SST (Silicon Storage Technology, Inc.) (Nasdaq: SSTI - news) announced today that the United States International Trade Commission (``ITC'') entered a notice of its final determination in the patent dispute between Atmel Corporation, SST and others. The Commission found that products designed by SST do not infringe U.S. Patents No. 4,511,811 and No. 4,673,829. The ITC also held that products designed by SST do infringe U.S. Patent No. 4,451,903, reversing determinations by its Administrative Law Judge that the '903 patent is invalid because it incorrectly names the purported inventors of the patent, unenforceable because of Atmel's inequitable conduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the finding that Atmel's predecessor had waived its right to enforce the patent.
The order prohibits the importation of certain EPROMs, EEPROMs, flash memory, and flash microcontroller semiconductor devices that infringe claims 1 or 9 of the '903 patent, and circuit boards containing such products, that are manufactured by or for SST's licensees Winbond Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Enforcement of the order is automatically stayed until the office of the President approves of the Order, or until the sixty-day period for presidential review expires. The Commission also ordered that a bond of $.78 per device be posted pending the decision of the President.
Bing Yeh, President and CEO of SST had the following comment. ``I am pleased that the Commission upheld the decision of the Administrative Law Judge and held that there was no infringement of the ''811 and '829 patents. I am disappointed with the finding concerning the '903 patent. I believe the Administrative Law Judge made the correct decision as to the '903 and we fully intend to appeal the Commission's decision. If upheld by the President and not stayed or reversed on appeal, SST believes that the Commission's decision will have an immaterial effect on SST's operations. We reiterate our financial guidance for 4Q00 and beyond,`` he said.
The '903 patent was invented by Seeq Technology, Inc. and later acquired in 1994 by Atmel. This patent was promoted by Seeq as an industry standard in the early 1980's and was later adopted by JDEC, an electronic industry standard committee, as a standard. The technique is widely used in EPROM, EEPROM, and FLASH memory products by virtually all nonvolatile memory and programming machine suppliers since JDEC standard was adopted. The '903 patent provides an electronic hardware tag marking method for the device and has no baring on the fundamental memory cell technology. Since 1997, SST has adopted a software alternative in its new products that is used by customers instead. The hardware method can easily and inexpensively be disabled by a simple mask change. Among all SST's products in production today, there are only three old products manufactured by Sanyo that are affected by this ruling. SST is in the process of making mask changes to disable the circuit that is subject to the claim. This change is expected to be in full production within two months.
The '903 patent expires on September 18, 2001. After that time there can be no infringement and the Commission's order will cease to be of any effect. Finally, the issue of infringement and enforceability of the '903 patent are before the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and the Commission's decision is not binding in that action. |
