Magma files additional request for re-examination of Synopsys patent
Magma Design Automation Inc. has announced it has filed a second request for re-examination of U.S. Patent Number 6,378,114 (the '114 patent), one of three patents at issue in a case filed against the company by Synopsys Inc. Magma's first request for re-examination of the '114 patent resulted in a finding that the request raised a substantial new question of patentability and a subsequent rejection of the patent's 15 claims by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). This new re-examination request is based upon prior art not previously cited to the PTO and adds further uncertainty as to the validity of the Synopsys patent.
The additional prior art includes the Ph.D. dissertation of Massoud Pedram, published by the University of California, Berkeley in 1991 – six years before Synopsys filed its application for the '114 patent. The new re-examination request asserts that Pedram's dissertation describes the subject matter of all 15 claims of the '114 patent and thus invalidates all claims.The '114 patent is one of three patents at issue in the companies' patent litigation pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and re-examination has been requested for all three patents. The PTO announced in November that it will re-examine U.S. Patent No. 6,725,438 (the '438 patent), and the PTO will determine by Feb. 10, 2007 whether to re-examine the third patent, U.S. Patent Number 6,453,446 (the '446 patent).
