SynQor Asks for Immediate Injunction in Bus Convertor Infringement Case
The hearing regarding SynQor’s motion for a permanent injunction against further sales by defendants of infringing products is underway in Marshall, Texas.
According to a report by Robin Y. Richardson in the Marshall News Messenger, SynQor’s lead attorney, Thomas Rein, asked for an immediate injunction, stating, "We believe that an injunction should begin today. The immediate future is critical."
SynQor’s position is that its patents have been significantly devalued by the infringement. The company alleges that Cisco, the primary customer of the defendents’ infringing products, will continue to infringe on products shipped to the U.S., and should therefore be required to outline the safeguards it has instituted in order to avoid infringement.
Defense attorney William Cornelius opposed the issuing of an immediate injunction, and proposed an eight-month transition period as an alternative solution, arguing that "there will be a transitory process when the defendants’ customers will have to start buying products from SynQor. We think it makes much more sense to protect the innocent customers for the court to retain control of the transition by (limiting) the injunction."
Judge Ward responded by stating that the granting of the eight-month transition period would negate the need to penalize the defendants, and thus would be of no value to SynQor. Ward is expected to issue his order soon.
In SynQor, Inc. v. Artesyn Technologies, Inc. et al., SynQor had asserted 5 patents against 11 of the largest industry suppliers of unregulated and semi-regulated bus converters in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. On December 23rd, in a unanimous verdict, the jury found that each of the 11 defendants infringed one or more of SynQor’s patents and upheld the validity of all such patents.
In addition, the jury awarded SynQor collective damages in excess of $95 million against Artesyn Technologies, Inc., Astec America, Inc., Bel Fuse Inc., Cherokee International Corp., Delta Electronics, Inc., Delta Products Corp., Lineage Power Corp., Murata Elec. North America, Inc., Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Murata Power Solutions Inc., and Power-One, Inc.
As of press time none of the defendants had issued a response to these developments.
Note: Thank you to the Marshall News Messenger for permission to paraphrase and quote from their article on this story.
