Patriot Scientific reaches an agreement with TPL in patent dispute

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/60459

Patriot Scientific, a development company in California, and license broker TPL have reached an agreement after many years of arguing about patents attributed to Chuck Moore, the inventor of Forth, among others. Last November, Patriot Scientific (PTSC) refused an indirect offer by TPL to be taken over. Now, the two companies have created a ``joint patent portfolio``, with the exclusive marketing rights going to the TPL Group.

Mostly, the two fledgling companies hold the three US patents 5,809,336, 6,598,148 and 5,784,584 to be ``crucial for almost all microprocessor designs.`` As proof, they cite lawyer Roger L. Cook, who is well known within the industry and called these patents ``the dream of every patent attorney.``

The success of this tiny development company from California provides some interesting insights into the licensing market. Just last year, PTSC pressed charges against numerous processor manufacturers -- including AMD and Intel -- for violations of patents. At the same time, the company also fought Forth creator Chuck Moore and TPL for ownership of the patent rights. At the beginning of 2005, PTSC managed to persuade AMD to pay licensing fees and purchase shares, making the company profitable for the first time in its 18-year history.

According to PTSC, Intel had also already secured the right of use to the patents in question. In other words, the dispute between PTSC and TPL arose because both companies were selling licenses to use the same patents.

TPL (Technology Properties Limited, domain without content) is based in Cupertino, California and belongs to Daniel E. and D. Mac Leckrone, apparently a father/son team. Both of them are specialized attorneys. Daniel E. Leckrone also operates Leckrone Law Corp. in San Jose. Mac Leckrone was and may still be working at Dolby International and also operates Alliacense as a license broker. In addition, he is also the Chairman of the Trademark Committee at the Licensing Executives Society (LESI), which will be holding its annual international conference next week in Munich. The management of the Society`s German chapter includes such lawyers as Dr. Günter Isenbruck and Christian Klawitter, who is also on the board of the specialized consulting firm IP Bewertungs AG. In addition, Peter K. Hess, a patent lawyer at Bardehle, Pagenberg, Dost, Altenburg, Geissler, is on the German LES Board -- among others, his law firm is representing Infineon in the dispute with Rambus. (Craig Morris)