Patent infringement enforcement action planned against DuPont Air products
Cabot Microelectronics Corporation announced plans to pursue legal action against DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials LLC (³DA Nano²) for the manufacture and marketing of certain CMP slurries that infringe patents owned by Cabot Microelectronics. The affected DA Nano products include those used for tungsten CMP.
Cabot Microelectronics announced its plan in response to a complaint filed on December 8 by DA Nano in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona seeking declaratory relief and alleging non-infringement, invalidity and unenforceability of some of the Cabot Microelectronics patents at issue. The complaint follows Cabot Microelectronics¹ refusal of DA Nano¹s request to be granted a license to the Cabot Microelectronics patents raised in the complaint. Cabot Microelectronics believes that the complaint is wholly without merit and anticipates responding to it and filing a counterclaim for patent infringement shortly. DA Nano¹s complaint does not allege any infringement by Cabot Microelectronics¹ products of intellectual property owned by DA Nano.
³Cabot Microelectronics remains committed to the enforcement of our intellectual property and protection of our significant investment in patent-protected research and development², stated H. Carol Bernstein, Cabot Microelectronics' Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel. ³We believe certain of DA Nano¹s products infringe our tungsten CMP technology, and we are disappointed that this far they have refused to switch to non-infringing technology. We look forward to the successful resolution of this litigation.²
Earlier this year, Cabot Microelectronics successfully concluded a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) patent action against Cheil Industries, Inc. concerning some of the same patents currently at issue with DA Nano.
