Intellectual property
IXYS and Advanced Power Technology entered into an agreement and consented to a stipulated order of dismissal regarding their US patent infringement lawsuit in the Northern California District. The agreement is a final settlement of all claims in the lawsuit. The parties have agreed to keep the agreement confidential.
The North California district court granted summary judgement in favour of power semiconductor supplier Advanced Power Technology (APT), dismissing patent infringement claims made by IXYS in June 2004 (Bulletin 537 June 17, 2004).
The court held that IXYS' US patent Nos. 5,486,715 and 5,801,419 are not infringed by APT's power MOSFET products, and further held that "IXYS's patents are invalid because obvious." Key prior art cited by the court was APT's own dual metal power MOSFETs and IGBTs dating from the early 1990s. APT's own patent infringement claims against IXYS under APT's US patent Nos. 5,283,202 and 5,262,336 remained pending in June 2004 and were scheduled for trial in January 2005.
