U.S. International Trade
Commission Final Determination: Certain MediaTek Old Model Optical Storage
Chipsets Found to Infringe Claim No. 3 of '527 Patent; Design-Around Chipsets
Not Found to be Infringing; No Monetary Damages
Hsinchu, Taiwan , Sep. 29, 2005 '“ On Sep. 28, 2005, the United States International Trade Commission (the 'Commission"), upon review, affirms the rulings of an Initial Determination of May 16 (the 'ID") by Administrative Law Judge Paul J. Luckern and holds that MediaTek's chipsets do not infringe two patents (U.S. Patent No. 6,466,736 ('the '736 patent") and U.S. Patent No. 6,546,440 ('the '440 patent")), which had been asserted against MediaTek by Zoran Corporation and Oak Technology, Inc. (collectively, 'Zoran"). As a result, MediaTek's digital consumer DVD chips and chipsets do not infringe upon any of Zoran's asserted patents. The Commission, however, found that although certain MediaTek 's old model optical storage chipsets do not infringe on 2 of Zoran's Claims in relation to its U.S. Patent No. 6,584,527 ('the '527 patent"), they infringe Claim No. 3 of the '527 patent.
MediaTek believes the impact of today's ruling will be minimal, if any, as it has already developed a design - around solution that is specifically crafted to avoid infringement of the '527 patent. The design-around solution was carefully developed with thorough input from several teams of U.S. patent counsels whom have concluded that the new design does not infringe upon Zoran's patent. In addition, the record clearly indicated that these design-around chipsets are not found to be infringing in this investigation. As such, contrary to Zoran's press release, dated Sep. 28, MediaTek is confident that the limited exclusion order issued by the Commission today only concerns certain MediaTek's old model optical storage chipsets specifically found to have infringed Claim No. 3 of the '527 patent and that the new generation design-around chipsets will not be affected by today's ruling. MediaTek has already provided its customers with the new generation chipsets and all customers have already migrated to the new solution in their products since the middle of this year. It should be noted that Zoran may not obtain monetary damages in ITC proceeding. Notwithstanding the foregoing, MediaTek continues to believe that it has excellent invalidity and noninfringement defenses on Zoran's '527 patent and will immediately and vigorously pursue on appeal to the Federal Circuit. With respect to the patent infringement case MediaTek filed against Zoran in the ITC, the case is progressing smoothly and a hearing was held around July of this year. The Administrative Law Judge is expected to issue an ID around the end of September. Furthermore, MediaTek's Chinese patent infringement case against Zoran Corporation and Zoran Digital Technology (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Zoran's wholly-owned subsidiary in China, is also moving along well.
About MediaTek Inc.
MediaTek Inc. is a leading provider of total solution for
optical storage, digital consumer, wirelesscommunication and digital television semiconductor. Founded
in 1997 and headquartered at Hsin-ChuScience Park, Taiwan, MediaTek is now one of the world's top-tier IC fables companies and the world's largest chipset supplier of CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, COMBO and DVD player. The Company's common stock is traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under the code '2524".
Source: http://www.mtk.com.tw
