Intellectual property
The US district court in Oregon has ruled that Semitool did not infringe Novellus' US patent 6,074,544 and the court also granted a key summary judgment of non-infringement under US patent 6,162,344. The portion of the '344 patent left remaining for trial by the court deals with contact rings that have not been used by Semitool in its plating tools since early 2001.
Lumileds Lighting and Epistar have settled pending litigation between the companies. The allegations and counter allegations centred on US patent No.5,008,718, which is owned by Lumileds. The parties have agreed to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement agreement, Lumileds has granted Epistar a limited license to practice several patents in the field of absorbing-substrate AlInGaP LEDs.