The ITC Committee said it would postpone the final judgment [*3].
In this notice, the Committee corrected the interpretation of patent 522 and asked the judge to re-examine whether some products were infringed based on the corrected interpretation of patent, while the Committee maintained its view on patent 187. The official final judgment is expected to be obtained on September 15, 2006. During the period when the final judgment is delayed, the products of Action can still enter the American market without restriction.
Up to now, the products sold by Torch Power to the United States account for less than 10% of the company’s overall operating income, and at the same time, Torch Power has announced the launch of a brand-new product for the American market earlier. This product adopts 0.18 micron process and brand-new power management design, and strengthens the audio decoding function, which can play CD-level sound quality.
Here, thank ITC for its clear, clear and fair ruling, and we look forward to the new ruling of the administrative judge.
Torch Power always attaches great importance to intellectual property rights and respects the intellectual property rights of others. We have a group of world-class teams, and we already have independent innovation and industry-leading integrated circuit technology. At the same time, we are constantly strengthening this advantage: in the first half of this year alone, we added more than 50 engineers.
Juli sincerely thanks the peers and the vast number of upstream and downstream manufacturers for their support. We will, as always, devote ourselves to the development of independent intellectual property rights, constantly introduce new products, and continue to give play to our advantages of leading solutions, being close to the market and leading services, and work with peers and partners to promote the rapid and healthy development of the digital multimedia player industry and continuously meet the needs of global consumers.
[*1] ITC, United States International Trade Commission
[*2] This alleged infringement lawsuit, ITC-337-TA-538, in the court of the United States Federal International Trade Commission, started in mid-March 2005.
[*3] final judgment, Final Determination
About Torch Power
Juli Integrated Circuit Design (Cayman) Co., Ltd. * is an IC design company located in Zhuhai, China, which is mainly engaged in the design, testing and sales of portable consumer electronic products SOC multimedia series chips and provides complete solutions. Julius can provide complete products and technical solutions including SOC chips, hardware, software and development tools, so that customers can quickly launch new portable consumer products in the most cost-saving way. The company is headquartered in Zhuhai, China, and has offices in Beijing and Shenzhen. For details, please refer to the company website www.actions-semi.com.
Memorabilia of litigation case
Material 1. Milestones of this investigation case (337-TA-538) over the past year [compiled on June 22, 2006]
June 19, 2006 is expected to issue an exclusion order and a final determination.
However, the notice of re-issuance indicated that part of it was sent back for retrial and the injunction was postponed.
On May 5, 2006, the commission decided to accept the defendant’s petition and conduct a partial review of the judge’s ruling.
On March 20, 2006, the initial determination announced that Zhuhai Juli Chip was ruled to infringe two patents, 522 and 187.
On November 30, 2005, the court session was held in Washington, USA, for five days.
Zhuhai Juli hired three expert witnesses and sent five employees to testify in court.
On October 25, 2005, after all the evidence searches were completed, Zhuhai Torch Force submitted nearly 1,000 kilograms of written materials to ITC.
On October 13th, 2005, the plaintiff withdrew a litigation patent (6,137,279). The number of patents involved in litigation has been reduced from three to two.
On September 19, 2005, the second round of deposition was held in Macao, lasting for six days. Zhuhai Juli dispatched six employees to answer the call.
On August 15, 2005, the first round of written interrogation was held in Macao, lasting for 12 days. Zhuhai Juli sent ten employees to answer the call.
On June 9, 2005, the plaintiff sued a litigation patent (6,366,522). The number of patents involved in litigation has increased from two to three.
On April 18, 2005, the US Trade Commission decided to set up an investigation case and started the investigation, with the number of 337-TA-538.
On March 29, 2005, Zhuhai Juli decided to hire Finnegan Henderson as a defense lawyer.
On March 22, 2005, Zhuhai Juli decided to actively respond to the lawsuit to defend its independent intellectual property rights and set an example for the IC design industry in China.
On March 15, 2005, Sigmatel, Texas, filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing the chip products of Juli in Zhuhai, China of infringing two of its patents. The patents held are 6,137,279 and 6,633,187.
Material 2: Three asserted patents involved in this investigation (337-TA-538) [compiled on June 20, 2006]
6,137,279 Adjustable power control module and applications thereof
6,366,522 Method and apparatus for controlling power consumption of an integrated circuit
6,633,187 Method and apparatus for enabling a stand alone integrated circuit