Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq:CY) today said that negotiations
with GSI Technology, Inc. regarding the alleged infringement of
Cypress's SRAM patents by GSI have ended without a resolution. In June,
Cypress filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission
alleging infringement by GSI of four of its SRAM patents. The complaint
seeks an exclusion order from the ITC that would prevent the importation
of all infringing GSI SRAMs. The ITC requires disputing companies to
meet three times before the trial. Cypress's comments came in the wake
of the first of these meetings.
"Talks between Cypress and GSI broke off last week without any
progress," Cypress president and CEO T.J. Rodgers said in an extended
statement. "Nothing short of structural change – an agreement by GSI
management to immediately stop selling products that infringe on
Cypress's intellectual property – will enable us to get this matter
settled.
"GSI's investors, and its board of directors, must be aware that GSI's
revenue stream is at serious risk," Rodgers said. "The ITC trial is
scheduled to begin in mid-2012. It is important to note that the ITC
cannot award damages. If the ITC rules that GSI has used infringing IP,
its only remedy is an exclusion order – an immediate ban on the
importation of products that contain infringing GSI technology into the
U.S. Such a ban would have an immediate and traumatic impact on GSI and
its customers that use the infringing technology."
"A substantial portion of GSI's revenue comes from SRAM products that
infringe multiple Cypress memory cell, circuit and architectural
patents," said Dana Nazarian, executive vice president of Cypress's
Memory Products Division. "The infringement, we will prove, is broad,
deliberate and blatant."
Cypress also filed a complaint with the Minnesota District Court in
March, alleging that GSI's SigmaQuad-II™, SigmaQuad-III™ and SigmaDDR™
SRAMs infringe on its SRAM patents. Cypress filed its ITC complaint
after it became clear that GSI was not willing to discuss a meaningful,
structural settlement of the district court case. The ITC process
required Cypress to name known importers and users of the alleged
infringing GSI products. This list, which originally contained 10
companies, has recently been reduced to eight.
"Cypress's first core value, found on every floor of every Cypress
building worldwide, is that we thrive on competing against the world's
best," Rodgers said. "I was shocked to find out that GSI, a very strong
competitor of ours, had built their portfolio of SigmaQuadTM
products on Cypress's intellectual property. In effect, they pilfered
our IP in order to compete against us in the marketplace, rather than
spend the millions of dollars in RD required to build high-speed
networking SRAMs."
About Cypress
Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions
that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system
value. Cypress offerings include the flagship PSoC® programmable
system-on-chip families and derivatives such as PowerPSoC® solutions for
high-voltage and LED lighting applications, CapSense® touch sensing and
TrueTouch® solutions for touchscreens. Cypress is the world leader in
USB controllers, including the high-performance West Bridge® solution
that enhances connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets.
Cypress is also a leader in high-performance memories and programmable
timing devices. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer,
mobile handsets, computation, data communications, automotive,
industrial and military. Cypress trades on the NASDAQ Global Select
Market under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.
Cypress, the Cypress logo, PSoC, PowerPSoC, CapSense, TrueTouch and
West Bridge are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All
other trademarks are the property of their owners.
