OPTi Announces Judgment in Crystal Litigation
MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 26, 1999--OPTi Inc. (Nasdaq:OPTI) today announced that on July 23, 1999, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas has entered an Order and Judgment in the patent infringement action brought by Crystal Semiconductor Corporation against OPTi, Inc., Tritech Microelectronics Pte Ltd., a Singapore company, and TriTech Microelectronics International, Inc., its American marketing subsidiary.
The Court's judgment substantially reduced the amount of damages that a jury had awarded to Crystal against OPTi, from $19.4 million to $4 million.
In May 1999, OPTi and the two TriTech were found by a jury to have infringed three patents owned Crystal Semiconductor, a wholly owned division of Cirrus Logic Inc. The patents relate to the analog to digital coder-decoder ("codec") circuitry used in various audio chips, including those used in the sound systems of personal computers. At that time, the jury awarded a total of $48.5 million in damages for past infringement against all three defendants, of which $19.4 million was found to be OPTi's share.
The Court's Judgment also includes a permanent injunction against further infringement, OPTi, however, is no longer in the audio chip business, having sold its audio division to Creative Technology in November 1997.
The parties have thirty days from judgment, until August 23, 1993, to decide whether to appeal from the Court's judgment, both on liability and on damages issues.
The judgment entered by the Court was as follows:
IT IS ORDERED, ADJOURNED, AND DECREED that the plaintiff Crystal Semiconductor Corporation do have and recover judgment against Tritech Microelectronics International, Inc. and TriTech Microelectronics Pte, Ltd. (collectively "TriTech"), jointly and severally, in the amount of $20,000,000 plus reasonable attorney fees and costs, and that judgment shall bear post-judgment interest, for which let execution issue; IT IS ORDERED, ADJOURNED, AND DECREED that the plaintiff Crystal Semiconductor Corporation do have and recover judgment against OPTi Inc. in the amount of $4,000,000 plus costs, and that judgment shall bear post-judgment interest, for which let execution issue; IT IS ORDERED, ADJOURNED, AND DECREED that the dollar judgments against Tritech and OPTi are joint and several in the amount of $4,000,000 plus costs, and the plaintiff shall not be entitled to payment on this judgment in excess of $20,000,000 plus reasonable attorney fees, costs, and accrued post-judgment interest on this judgment.
IT IS ORDERED, ADJOURNED, AND DECREED that defendants OPTi and TriTech, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice hereof, are hereby enjoined, from directly or indirectly infringing any of the asserted claims identified below of Crystal's patents-in-suit by making, using, offering to sell, or selling in the United States, causing to be made, used offered for sale, or sold in the United States, or importing into or causing to be imported into the United States, the identified products and all products that are only colorably different therefrom in the context of the respective inventions of the asserted claims, whether individually or in combination with other products or as part of another product, and from otherwise infringing or inducing others to infringe the asserted claims of the patents-in-suit. This injunction commences from the date of this judgment and runs until the expiration of each of the respective patents-in-suit.
IT IS ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that each defendant shall provide an affidavit to the Court, within ten (10) calender days of this entry of this order: (1) identifying all customers (wether or not known to have affiliations with the United States) to whom infringing products, as identified herein, have been sold since February 12, 1999 and the number of such products which have been delivered to each such customer as of the date of the affidavit; (2) attesting that a copy of this judgment has been formally served by the respective defendant(s) on such customers; and (3) attesting that all infringing products in the United States which were imported into the United States after February 12, 1999, and which are in the possession or control of any defendant, have been removed from the United States, and the defendants are no longer using, selling, or offering for sale any of them in the United States, or importing them into the United States, or causing others to do so |
