SiliconBeat

Tessera Technologies, the San Jose provider of miniaturization technologies for the electronics industry, said the U.S. Patent and Trade Office issued a decision late Friday regarding its re-examination of Tessera’s U.S. Patent No. 6,433,419, which relates to
semiconductor packaging technologies used in the wireless industry.

The action was prompted in February following a legal action by the International Trade Commission. The USPTO rejected “certain claims” of the patent in a step known as Action Closing Prosecution (ACP), don’t
let that word “closing” confuse you.

Tessera may respond “within one month to questions raised by the PTO examiners,” something
the company says it plans on doing. “The examiners may then reopen prosecution, issue another
ACP, or issue a notice that Tessera may appeal the examiners’ decision to the Board of Patent
Appeals and Interferences,” according to Tessera in an SEC filing Monday, adding that there
“is no deadline for further action by the examiners. Tessera anticipates it ultimately will
be required to appeal the examiners’ decision.”

Just in case you were wondering how long this all might take, Tessera anticipated your
question. “According to a recent study,” says Tessera, this particular reexamination process
where appeals are involved takes an average of five to eight years to conclude, “which means
that the reexamination of the ‘419 patent likely will not be completed before (the patent)
expires in September 2010.”

The strategy apparently appealed to investors. Tessera shares, which had their biggest drop ever back in March on an “initial office action” taken by the USPTO related to a Tessera patent for DRAM memory chips, rose $1.46, or 8.4 percent Monday to close at $18.80.