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Fairchild Files New Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Power Integrations

October 14, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Fairchild Semiconductor announced that it has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Power Integrations, Inc.. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Deleware, Fairchild alleges that certain Power Integrations’ pulse-width modulation (PWM) integrated circuit products infringe one or more claims of three U.S. patents owned by Fairchild subsidiary System General Corp..

The U.S. patents are No. 7,259,972, entitled "Primary-Side-Control Power Converter Having Switching Controller Using Frequency Hopping and Voltage And Current Control Loops;" No. 7,352,595, entitled "Primary-Side Controlled Switching Regulator;" and No. 7,061,780, entitled "Switching Control Circuit with Variable Switching Frequency for Primary-Side-Controlled Power Converters."

Fairchild is seeking monetary damages and an injunction preventing the manufacture, use, sale, offer for sale or importation of Power Integrations products found to infringe the asserted patents.

The new lawsuit follows in the aftermath of the recent (September) finding of the Court that Power Integrations’ patent-infringement lawsuit against Fairchild was enforceable. Power Integrations was found to have acted properly in the process of applying for and obtaining its patents from the Patent Office and, as a result, the Court rejected Fairchild’s claims of inequitable conduct and ruled the patents enforceable. In October 2006, a jury found that Fairchild willfully infringed each of the four patents and awarded Power Integrations damages of approximately $34 million. In September 2007, a separate jury upheld the validity of each of the four patents.

Power Integrations stated after the September decision that it clears the way for resolution of the remaining issues to be decided in the case. These include Power Integrations’s request for a permanent injunction against the continued manufacture, importation and sale of the infringing Fairchild parts, and the company’s request for enhanced damages based on the finding of willful infringement.