Patent Litigation Settlements in the News

Written by Gene Quinn
President & Founder of IPWatchdog, Inc.
Patent Attorney, Reg. No. 44,294
Zies, Widerman & Malek
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Posted: Feb 12, 2009 @ 12:26 pm

General Electric & Ronald A. Katz

General Electric Company (GE), a diversified technology, media and financial services company (NYSE:GE), and Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P., announced on February 11, 2008, that the two settled the patent litigation between the parties. As part of the settlement, GE has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum for a nonexclusive license under a comprehensive portfolio of patents that Katz owns relating to interactive voice applications.

The patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing, L.P. cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of: customer service, prescription refill services, securities trading, merchandising, prepaid services, telephone conferences, registration, home shopping, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll free and local numbers.

Ronald A. Katz stated, “We welcome GE to the significant group of technology, media and financial services companies who have purchased a license under this portfolio.”

Mr. Katz is the named inventor on a large number of patents primarily in the fields of telecommunications and computing. He also formed Telecredit, Inc., the nation’s first on-line real time credit and check cashing authorization system, and was awarded a patent as co-inventor of that technology.

BCD Settles With Power Integrations

BCD Semiconductor Manufacturing Limited (BCD Semi), a leading analog integrated device manufacturer specializing in the design, manufacture, and sale of power management integrated circuits, has settled its patent litigation lawsuit with Power Integrations, Inc.

BCD maintains that it did not infringe any patents, and is aware that many of the patent claims in the lawsuit are currently under a final rejection in reexamination proceedings ongoing in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. BCD Semi agreed to settle these patent claims for business reasons. The consent judgment states that BCD Semi voluntarily accepts patent settlement, makes no payment to Power Integrations, and agrees not to sell the AP3700, AP3710 or hybrid Integrated Circuits with the same frequency dithering circuits in the United States. In addition, BCD Semi agrees not to sell such products for end use in the U.S. market. The settlement and order affect no other products.

“This lawsuit made no business sense for us as it involves a product that is no longer used in the United States,” said Chieh Chang, President and CEO of BCD Semi. “We believe that this lawsuit was a diversion from our goal to introduce new products that continue to provide cutting-edge solutions to our customers.”

About the Author

Eugene R. Quinn, Jr.
President & Founder of IPWatchdog, Inc.
US Patent Attorney (Reg. No. 44,294)
Zies, Widerman & Malek

B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Rutgers University
J.D., Franklin Pierce Law Center
L.L.M. in Intellectual Property, Franklin Pierce Law Center

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Gene Quinn is a US Patent Attorney, law professor and the founder of IPWatchdog.com. He is also a principal lecturer in the top patent bar review course in the nation, which helps aspiring patent attorneys and patent agents prepare themselves to pass the patent bar exam. Known by many as “The IPWatchdog,” Gene started the widely popular intellectual property website IPWatchdog.com in 1999, and since that time the site has had millions of unique visitors. Gene has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the LA Times, CNN Money, NPR and various other newspapers and magazines worldwide. He represents individuals, small businesses and start-up corporations. As an electrical engineer with a computer engineering focus his specialty is electronic and computer devices, Internet applications, software and business methods.