Court Enhances Atmel Award to $36.5 Million for Willful Patent Infringement by Silicon Storage Technology
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2002--Atmel®
Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML - News) announced today that on Tuesday, May 7,
2002, in the matter captioned Atmel Corporation v. Silicon Storage
Technology, Inc. ("SST"), in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of California, Judge Samuel Conti, after reviewing
an earlier jury award to Atmel of $20 million, has enhanced the award
to 36.5 million. On April 26, a jury found that Atmel's U.S. Patent
Nos. 4,511,811 and 4,673,829 (covering charge pumps for raising the
voltage on a conductive line) were valid and willfully infringed by
SST. The award enhancement was for willful infringement, and
pre-judgment interest, bringing the total award to $36.5M.
Atmel's Chief Litigation and Intellectual Property Counsel, Julie
Mar-Spinola, stated, "This enhancement reinforces the position we took
years ago, that these patents should have been licensed by SST, as we
originally proposed." Atmel's President and CEO, George Perlegos,
stated, "We are gratified by the court's findings and the judgment.
Atmel will remain diligent in defending its intellectual property
rights against those who choose to infringe them."
Ms. Mar-Spinola added, "There remains one additional Atmel patent,
U.S. Patent No. 4,451,903 ("Silicon Signature") to be tried against
SST. Originally, all three patents were to be tried to the same jury;
however, due to time constraints, the one remaining patent will be
tried separately in the near future. The court has already determined
that SST infringed that patent, and the trial to come will involve
only the validity of that patent and damages. The '903 patent was the
subject of an earlier exclusion order issued by the International
Trade Commission. We hope that the trial on the '903 patent will
happen soon so that this long litigation can be concluded and so that
Atmel can be compensated monetarily for SST's infringement."
About Atmel
Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose,
California with manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe.
Atmel designs, manufactures and markets worldwide, advanced logic,
mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also
a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions
using CMOS, BiCMOS, SiGe, and high-voltage BCDMOS process
technologies.
Note to Editors: Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof
are registered trademarks and others contained herein, are trademarks
of Atmel Corporation. Terms and product names in this document may be
the trademarks of others.
Contact:
Atmel Corporation, San Jose
Julie Mar-Spinola, 408/487-2906
Fax: 408/487-2615
jmarspinola@atmel.com
