Today IV filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) against Elpida Memory, Inc. and Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. Per ITC requirements, the complaint also includes several companies whose products contain infringing Elpida and Hynix memory devices. As is common in these types of proceedings, we’ve also filed a similar complaint in District Court yesterday afternoon.
We had previously filed a patent infringement complaint against Elpida and Hynix in the U.S. District Court of Delaware in December 2010 when we could not reach licensing agreements with these companies. Filing a complaint with the ITC is an option available to all intellectual property owners facing infringement by other entities. Essentially, we’re asking the ITC to prevent the importation of products into the U.S. that infringe on our IP.
Melissa Finocchio, chief litigation counsel for IV, had the following insights to share:
“Over the course of IV’s history, we’ve entered into many long-term agreements with companies of all sizes, providing them with access to use our IP in their products. Our goal is to reach licensing agreements. But, when companies like Elpida and Hynix clearly infringe on our patents yet refuse to take a license, we have legal options we can use to protect our interests and those of our investors. We can file a patent infringement suit seeking money damages, which we did in December, and we can file a complaint with the ITC requesting an order barring importation of the infringing products into the U.S. In the case of Elpida and Hynix, we see both courses of action as necessary to protect the value of our invention rights.”