USPTO adopts and supports Kilopass' position in patent re-examination case with Sidense

SANTA CLARA, USA: Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) IP, has achieved the first major milestone at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by being granted the request for an inter partes reexamination of Sidense's US Patent No. 7,402,855.

Furthermore, the USPTO has rejected all four claims in this patent. Sidense has 60 days to respond to the rejection, followed by Kilopass’ answer within 30 days, upon which USPTO will deliver its final ruling (if different).

USPTO’s Inter partes reexamination process enables a three-party dialogue to clarify the disposition of a patent. Typically, the USPTO must first decide whether or not the petition to reexamine will be granted. Occasionally, the USPTO will reject some of the broadest claims in the disputed patent as over-reaching. However, it is rare, as is in this case, for all claims of the patent to be rejected in the initial ruling.

“We are pleased with the decision from the USPTO,” said Kilopass Vice President of Engineering, Lee Cleveland. “The ruling has overwhelmingly validated our belief that Sidense’s product is based on Kilopass’ 1T patent and that Sidense does not have the rights to offer its product for license. We are fully committed to the legal process at both the USPTO and federal district court, and believe that the ruling can only help accelerate the ruling in the district court.”

“Sidense’s ‘855 patent purports to claim memory read circuits with Kilopass’ patented variable oxide 1T transistor,” said Harry Luan, Kilopass’ CTO. “The additional research Kilopass provided clearly shows prior art of the circuits dating back to 1994, which facilitated the USPTO’s rejection of Sidense’s claims. We are therefore confident in supporting the USPTO’s process to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”