Fairchild and Power Integrations Infringe Each Other’s Patents

Fairchild Semiconductor today announced that Power Integrations, Inc. was found to infringe Fairchild's U.S. Patent No. 7,259,972 by continuing to market and sell its LinkSwitch II family of products, even after a 2012 jury found those same power conversion chips violated the patent. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on Friday found that Power Integrations induced customers to infringe Fairchild's patent rights, and awarded Fairchild $2.4 million in damages. This damages figure reflects an approximately 1.5-cent per unit royalty on LinkSwitch II parts imported into the United States.

At the same time, Power Integrations announced the latest result in its ongoing patent litigation against Fairchild. After a two-week trial, a Jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware ruled that Fairchild infringes a Power Integrations patent, U.S. Patent No. 7,995,359, and that Fairchild has contributed to and induced infringement by its customers. The infringed patent relates to zero-standby technologies; Power Integrations intends to seek a permanent injunction to prevent the sales and importation of infringing products and products with substantially similar circuitry. Though a second Power Integrations patent was found by the Jury not to be infringed, the accused Fairchild products are already covered by infringement findings from the parties’ prior litigation.

Filed by Fairchild in 2012, the case initially included four patent claims against Power Integrations, three of which were eliminated from the case prior to trial. The Jury did rule that Power Integrations induced infringement of a Fairchild patent that the company had previously been found to infringe with respect to its LinkSwitch™-II products, and awarded damages of $2.4M. However, the Court has already rejected Fairchild’s earlier request for an injunction on that patent. Moreover, the U.S. Patent Office has rejected all of the asserted claims of Fairchild’s patent in re-examination in view of Power Integrations’ own prior patents. As such, Power Integrations does not anticipate any disruption in the supply of LinkSwitch-II products, the only Power Integrations product family at issue in this case.

Commenting on the most-recent decision, Mark Thompson, Fairchild president and CEO said, "Fairchild is gratified that the jury found in our favor," "PI was found to infringe this patent in 2012, and did nothing to change their sales or marketing practices. We brought suit to protect our intellectual property from this continuing infringement and we hope this will bring an end to PI's inducing activities."

The same jury found that Fairchild did not infringe one of two Power Integrations patents asserted in response to Fairchild's claims. PI was forced to withdraw a third patent from the case during trial. Prior to the trial, the Court granted Fairchild summary judgment of no infringement on a fourth patent and PI voluntarily withdrew a fifth patent. The jury also found Fairchild infringed two claims of one Power Integrations patent, and awarded PI damages of $100,000.

Commented Balu Balakrishnan, president and CEO of Power Integrations: “Given that the Patent Office had already rejected Fairchild’s patent in reexamination, Fairchild’s lawsuit was a wasteful and unnecessary attempt by Fairchild to distract from their record of repeatedly violating our intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, this latest verdict ensures that another of Power Integrations’ important innovations will be protected.”

Fairchild and Power Integrations have been engaged in patent litigation since 2004. "While we are pleased with this most recent verdict, it remains our goal to achieve a non-litigious resolution to this long-running dispute," said Thompson.