In a unanimous decision authored by Chief Judge Rader, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C. affirmed the decision of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and upheld a $95M jury verdict previously won by SynQor, Inc., as well as the Court's additional award of supplemental damages and sanctions. "This is a complete and total victory for SynQor" remarked Dr. Martin F. Schlecht, President and Chief Executive Officer of SynQor. "We hope that the defendants in this case, their customers and any other suppliers to those customers take note and respect our patents going forward," he continued.
The case involved the appeal of SynQor's 2010 patent litigation victory against industry suppliers of unregulated and semi-regulated bus converters used in Intermediate Bus Architecture applications. The original case was tried to a jury in the Eastern District of Texas.
"We could not be more pleased with the verdict from the Court of Appeals", commented Dr. Schlecht. "The Court not only upheld the jury's findings of infringement and validity of each of SynQor's patents, but also upheld the jury award of lost profits damages, as well as the Court's supplemental damages and sanctions awards. The decision also preserves the permanent injunction that has been fully in place since September 30, 2011. Unregulated and semi-regulated intermediate bus architecture is of tremendous value to the telecom and datacom industries and we are excited about the prospect of being the only company in the world with the ability to legally supply OEM's and other customers with their US requirements for such products".
In the original case, SynQor 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. Since that time, SynQor has commenced a new action against Cisco Systems and Vicor Corporation for infringement of the same patents.
Also pending before the District Court is an action for, among other things, supplemental damages and sanctions against Astec America, Inc., Bel Fuse, Inc., Power One, Inc., Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Murata Power Solutions Inc. for continued infringing sales that took place after the Court first entered its permanent injunction. In that action, SynQor is also seeking sanctions against Cisco based upon its and the aforementioned defendants' violation of the District Court's permanent injunction. SynQor's patents at issue in the lawsuit were U.S. Patent Nos. 7,072,190, 7,272,021, 7,558,083, 7,564,702 and 7,269,034.
Dr. Schlecht further stated: "The tireless efforts of the SynQor legal team at Sidley Austin LLP headed by Tom Rein in Chicago, along with Michael Hatcher in Dallas, and too many others to mention, have been extraordinary. We are deeply appreciative".
