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elektryk321
Blah, blah, blah, if they push tons of dollars to the processor development, ...
Neo1
Processor IP firms sue Amazon, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE, others
Peter Clarke
7/25/2012 8:44 AM EDT
LONDON – Alliacense LLC (Cupertino, Calif.), the adminstrator of the Moore Microprocessor Patent (MMP) portfolio, has announced that the co-owners of the portfolio are pursuing 13 companies with complaints alleging infringement being filed with the International Trade Commission and District Court for the Northern District of California.
The 13 companies that are alleged to have infringed are: Acer Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Barnes & Noble Inc., Garmin Ltd., HTC Corp., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Kyocera Corp., LG Electronics, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Novatel Wireless Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sierra Wireless Inc., and ZTE Corp.
The two companies that own the patent portfolio are Technology Properties Ltd. (Cupertino, Calif.) and Patriot Scientific Corp. (Carslbad, Calif.). The two companies have signed licensees for the MMP portfolio for several years and Alliacense said that the MMP Portfolio licensee community comprises nearly 100 global industry leaders. Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. were amongst the first companies to agree terms over the patents.
The strategy against the 13 companies includes: (1) a complaint filed with the ITC seeking an exclusion rrder prohibiting the importation of unlicensed products; (2) parallel actions in U.S. District Court seeking damages for past infringement that includes past un-paid royalties -- plus the interest which has accrued on those royalties -- both tripled for willful infringement, plus attorney's fees; and, (3) the pursuit of injunctions in both the US District Court and the ITC barring the sale of infringing products in the United States in the future.
Alliacense said that on June 12, 2012, the US District Court for the Northern District of California issued a "Markman" ruling that removed the "last-remaining ground" being used by a group of unlicensed, serial infringers.
The MMP portfolio, originated by TPL Group in 1989, includes US, European and Japanese patents which it considers fundamental to microprocessor operation.
TPL Group and Patriot Scientific annonced they had settled a dispute between them on the commercialization of the MMP portfolio in October 2011.
Microprocessor technologist Charles H. Moore (Chuck Moore) whose name is the first M in MMP announced he had filed a law suit against TPL and Alliacense, alleging fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of contract in October 2010.
Related links and articles:
www.alliacense.com
www.tplgroup.net
www.ptsc.com
News articles:
CPU technologist sues patent pool firms
Patent office again finds in favor of MMP portfolio
Audiovox signs up for MMP license
Patent firm files appeal to allow action over ARM cores
Lego Group to play with Moore Microprocessor patent portfolio
ARM drawn into lawsuit with processor technology licensor
Intel, AMD, HP pay Patriot $24 million for licenses
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eewiz
7/25/2012 11:45 AM EDT
Ahh! Another Patent troll seeking free money from companies. On one end Engineers who make these technologies are getting laid off and on the other end the trolls are getting fat extracting the last ounce of blood from companies. Why cant the government intervene to fix the scenario?
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C VanDorne
7/25/2012 2:56 PM EDT
Becasue they're in on it.
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bgees
7/25/2012 1:34 PM EDT
another bunch of scam artists trying to make a penny out of basic patents that they salvaged for cheap. does nothing but hinder innovation and demotivate engineers.
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gonavy
7/25/2012 4:00 PM EDT
To the uninformed: nothing was salvaged or cheap. These guys are the real deal. They have have been pouring tons of $ into processor development for over a decade, and I for one am glad to see this success story. It just goes to show that the corporate infringers can't get away with riding on the shoulders of others' innovations forever... and that there is hope for the little guy!
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elektryk321
7/26/2012 6:13 AM EDT
Blah, blah, blah, if they push tons of dollars to the processor development, they would invent something more valuable than the idea of Moore's stack machine. Otherway they just keep the patent, waiting for other companies to get enought money to steal it.
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Neo1
7/26/2012 12:39 AM EDT
So, they think they can take on the Taiwanese and Koreans, huh.
Companies like these are what makes Law the most sought after profession over all others. They are of the creed who think that most money can be made out by fighting out in courts rather than in the marketplace.
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