Atmel Claims Victory Over Agere In Patent Infringement Suit

San Jose, CA -- Atmel Corporation announced that it received a unanimous jury verdict that absolved it from any liability under any Agere patents asserted against Atmel's semiconductor processes and products in the patent infringement suit entitled Agere Systems, Inc. v. Atmel Corp., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Civ. Action No. 02-864, before the Honorable Legrome D. Davis.

"This is a significant victory for Atmel because it validated our long-felt belief that Agere's claims were unmeritorious," Julie Mar-Spinola, VP, Global Affairs – Litigation and Intellectual Property. "When wrongly accused, Atmel will defend its legitimate business practices vigorously, as we did here. We would like to thank our counsel, the law firms of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe and, local counsel, Miller, Alfano & Raspanti, for their integral role in achieving this complete victory for our company."

In 2002, Agere sued Atmel for infringement of three patents related to Tungsten processes, namely, US Patent Nos. 5,102,827 (Chen, et al.); 5,227,335 (Holschwandner, et al.); and 6,323,126 (Chittipeddi, et al.). Agere also sued Atmel for infringement of US Patent No. Re 34,269 (Moyer, et al.), which is related to integrated circuit packages. In particular, Agere sued Atmel on Claims 1-3 of the '827 patent, Claims 1-6 and 11 of the '335 patent, and Claim 6 of the '126 patent. The jury found each of these process claims invalid in light of prior art. On the '269 patent, the jury found that Atmel did not infringe the asserted Claims 6 and 9. Accordingly, Agere was awarded no damages. Agere has 30 days from the date of this decision in which to file an appeal to this decision.

Source: Atmel