Posted : 21 Mar 2006

IP firm Patriot Scientific Corp. has announced that the U.S. District Court of Northern California has stayed the declaratory judgment actions recently filed in that court against Patriot and the TPL Group, another global intellectual property management company, by several Japanese manufacturers.

Last December, a group of 20 Japanese electronic manufacturers, including Matsushita, JVC, Toshiba, and NEC, countersued Patriot and another IP firm, Technology Properties Ltd. The countersuit was in response to a patent infringement suit TPL filed on the behalf of Patriot last October in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging Japanese companies infringed at least three of the ten patents covered by the Moore Microprocessor Patent (MMP) Portfolio.

But in the latest twist to the case, the U.S. District Court in Northern California halted further proceedings in the California actions pending outcome of TPL`s suit pending in the Texas courts. The move could favor TPL and Patriot, which co-own the MMP portfolio of patents named after TPL chief technology officer Charles Moore.

``This ruling puts a halt to procedural maneuvering by the Matsushita, Panasonic, JVC, Toshiba, and NEC entities,`` said Dan Leckrone, chairman of the TPL Group. Leckrone noted that the Fujitsu entities, who were also defendants in the Texas action, in March agreed to license the MMP Portfolio, and have been dismissed from the Texas and California actions.

Patriot, once a rival of TPL, is also bearing the fruits of increasing royalties from licensing of the MMP portfolio. In February, Patriot said it received $24 million from Intel and AMD for agreeing to license the patents.

- Spencer Chin

EE Times