SiliconBeat

Tessera Technologies, the San Jose provider of chip-packaging technology, put out a press release today educating us about the finer points of the patent review process as it relates to an “initial office action” it didn’t describe on the part of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office regarding its re-examination of Tessera’s patent 6,133,627 related to DRAM memory chips.

The release explained that the action — which it never spells out in the release — as “non-final” and subject to “lengthy review” including the “possibility of appeal”. We started to get an inkling of that action further down in the release where the company assured us that its “not unusual for the PTO to preliminarily reject claims during the reexamination process. Tessera has the right to argue, and will continue to argue, the merits of its position.” The process, it said, could take 24 months to settle.

Ah, we’re sensing a set-back here. It turns out the USPTO was asked by chip-packaging maker Siliconware Precision Industries to review this particular patent and after doing so it rejected the patent. It was the fourth Tessera patent that it has rejected.

Shares of Tessera had their biggest fall ever on the news, despite Tessera’s education effort. An analyst with Cowen & Co. called the stock fall a “huge overreaction” according to a Bloomberg News story. “At this point, there is no reason to believe that this preliminary ruling threatens existing DRAM revenue streams,” Cowen analyst Raj Seth said in a note to clients. He has an outperform” rating on Tessera and doesn’t own any shares, according to the Bloomberg story.