ITC issues notice of final determination in Tessera’s DRAM action

SAN JOSE, USA: Tessera Technologies Inc. announced that the International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a notice of its final determination in the action brought by Tessera against certain DRAM manufacturers, affirming that Tessera’s three asserted patents are valid.

The ITC, however, determined among other things that the methodology used by Tessera’s expert was insufficient to prove infringement by the respondents of two of the asserted patents.

As to the third patent, the notice indicates that infringement was proven as to some but not all of the accused products, but that, due to patent exhaustion, there was no violation of Section 337. The action is Investigation No. 337-TA-630 (DRAM ITC action).

Tessera has not yet received the Commission’s Final Determination itself and, therefore, does not yet know the details of any reasoning behind the ITC’s conclusions.

“Once again, the ITC affirmed the validity of our asserted patents. We are disappointed, however, with the determinations regarding our infringement methodology and patent exhaustion,” said Henry R. Nothhaft, president and CEO of Tessera.

“We will have an opportunity to appeal this ruling and are already reviewing other avenues open to us to ensure we are fully compensated for use of our technology. We continue to work closely with our licensed customers who are benefitting from their use of our patent portfolio, valuable know-how and trade secrets.”

The respondents in the DRAM ITC action include Acer Inc, Centon Electronics Inc, Elpida Memory Inc., Kingston Technology Co. Inc., Nanya Technology Corp., Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., ProMOS Technologies Inc., Ramaxel Technology Ltd, and Smart Modular Technologies Inc.

Tessera asserted infringement of three Tessera patents -- U.S. Patent No. 6,133,627 ('627), U.S. Patent No. 5,679,977 (‘977), and U.S. Patent No. 5,663,106 (‘106).