SiliconBeat

Wow, that was fast. Henry Nothhaft, who was named chief executive at Tessera Technologies in  August after serving on its board as vice chairman, scored a 10 percent raise after less than five months on the job.

Nothhaft was originally granted a salary of Read the rest of this entry »

Tessera Technologies, the chip-packaging company that has been on the losing end of multiple decisions by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office in its re-examination of patents Tessera has accused a number of chip makers of infringing before the International Trade Commission, said it reached a settlement with one of them.

Peripheral Devices & Product Systems, which operates under the trade name Patriot Memory, Read the rest of this entry »

Tessera Technologies, the San Jose developer of electronics miniaturization technologies, said it has a new chief executive, “effective immediately”, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. Taking over is Hank Nothhaft, currently vice chairman of Tessera’s board.

Outgoing CEO Bruce McWilliams, who is “transitioning to a new role as Read the rest of this entry »

Tessera Technologies lost another “office action” regarding patent claims involved in two investigations before the International Trade Commission, although you wouldn’t know that based on the release the company put out today. The patents, which are related to semiconductor packaging technologies, are being reexamined by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office on behalf of several companies Tessera has accused of infringing on them.

A dueling release from the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, which represents Siliconware Precision Industries in the matter, gave a bit more information about the “office action” to which Tessera alluded, saying that the USPTO has rejected Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.