SiliconBeat

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Post archive for ‘Patents’

VirnetX hires Microsoft antagonist to lead patent fight(2)

virnetx-logoVirnetX, the Scotts Valley supplier of tools for securing real-time communications over the Internet, has hired a Texas-based law firm with a track record of fighting Microsoft in court to represent it in its current suit against the software giant.

McKool Smith will now lead VirnetX’s litigation effort in a suit brought against Microsoft in February 2007 Read the rest of this entry »

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Opti awarded $19 million in patent case against Apple(0)

optilogo3Opti, a former maker of semiconductors that now makes its living licensing its intellectual property, said in a press release Friday that the jury from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled in its favor in the patent infringement trial between it and Apple related to its patent entitled Read the rest of this entry »

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Rambus due nearly $350 million in Hynix decision(0)

rambus_logobarRambus is set to get about $349 million from Hynix Semiconductor based on a “final judgement” rendered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Tuesday.

Hynix was also ordered to pay the Los Altos chip designer royalties on Read the rest of this entry »

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Opti says patent hearing favors its arguments over Apple’s(1)

Opti, a former maker of semiconductors that now makes its living licensing its intellectual property, said today it prevailed over Apple, which it has sued alleging patent infringement, in a special proceeding required under U.S. patent law where both sides present their arguments to the court as to how they believe certain terms at issue in the lawsuit should be interpreted.

The court ruled that OPTi had prevailed on all “claims construction” against Apple and rejected Read the rest of this entry »

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Avistar board pays CEO bonus despite unmet performance targets(0)

Back in April, the compensation committee on the board at Avistar Communications (Nasdaq: AVSR), approved a bonus structure for its chief executive, Simon Moss, who joined the company in January. Under it, his target bonus was set at $200,000, payable in quarterly installments based on the achievement of certain financial performance targets.

Moss also gets to participate in Read the rest of this entry »

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Asyst agrees to interest bump on loans (and loses court verdict, btw)(0)

Asyst Technologies will pay two percentage points more in interest on $110.4 million it owes as the result of a second amendment to a credit agreement with KeyBank National Association, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon. In exchange, certain of its loan covenants were relaxed, such as the minimum level of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and minimum liquidity. Asyst also agreed to increase its scheduled payments next year

The original $137.5 million credit agreement, signed in July 2007, was good on an $85 million loan and $52.5 million worth of revolving credit. The company first amended the agreement in April to allow its loan Read the rest of this entry »

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TiVo gets $104.6 million check from EchoStar judgement(2)

Tivo got its $104,600,472 payment from Echostar, now known as Dish Network, over violation of a patent held by TiVo involving digital video recorders, according to a filing it made today with the SEC. The judgement included $74 million in initial damages awarded by the United States District Court covering the period through Sept. 8, 2006, plus related interest through Wednesday, the day TiVo check arrived.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court refused to disturb Read the rest of this entry »

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Quantum gets $11 million as part of settlement with Riverbed(0)

Quantum, the San Jose storage firm, and Riverbed Technology, a San Francisco supplier of wide-area data service tools, settled patent litigation between them Tuesday. In exchange for an $11 million payment to Quantum, both companies entered into a “perpetual covenant not to sue” one another or their affiliates over patents related to “data de-duplication” over the next five years, according to an SEC filing.

Quantum filed suit against Riverbed in October 2007, and Riverbed filed a countersuit a month later. As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, both companies released each other from any and all claims in the matter.

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Rambus winning suits but not influencing people(14)

Rambus, the litigious Los Altos chip designer, is the subject of a New York Times story Monday that begins with the efforts over the last two years of Craig Hampel, the company’s senior engineer, to “design the next leap in memory chip technology,” a way to allow computers to display complex graphics even faster.

However, the bulk of the article, by Laurie Flynn (a former Merc colleague who edited our computing section back in the day) is focused on the company’s efforts to translate patent litigation victories into better returns for its shareholders as well as the ill will generated Read the rest of this entry »

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Opti wins in licensing dispute with Nvidia(1)

Opti said it prevailed in an arbitration with Nvidia over its continued use of Opti’s “pre-snoop” technology, and is owed $3.75 million plus interest for Nvidia’s unpaid use of the intellectual property involved for the five quarters from Feb. 1, 2007, through April 30, 2008, according to a filing the company made with the SEC Tuesday.

The two companies had entered into a licensing agreement in 2007 as part of the settlement of a patent infringement claim Opti brought against Nvidia in 2004, according to Tuesday’s filing. The agreement called for Nvidia to make quarterly royalty payments of Read the rest of this entry »

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