US District Court Accepts Kilopass' Expanded Complaint and Denies Sidense's Motion for Dismissal in Patent Lawsuit

Update: Synopsys Expands DesignWare IP Portfolio with Acquisition of Kilopass Technology (Jan. 10, 2018)

Court deems Kilopass Claims Substantiated and Moves Case Forward

Santa Clara, Calif. – October 18, 2010 – Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of logic non-volatile memory (NVM) IP, announced today that the United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of California has accepted Kilopass’ expanded complaint and–without a hearing–has denied Sidense’s motion for dismissal. The judge ruled that “for good cause shown” Kilopass’ amended complaint was granted and the Sidense’s motion to dismiss was dismissed. She therefore cancelled the dismissal hearing, scheduled for October 26, 2010.

 “We are pleased with the court’s ruling,” said Charlie Cheng, Kilopass CEO. “We amended our complaint to include even more details of Sidense’s misconduct and to obviate the need to wait for a hearing on Sidense’s motion to dismiss. Kilopass’ amended complaint is even stronger, and I am confident that the case will move to the next stage, which is the fact-finding phase. We would like to get this issue resolved to remove the uncertainty from the market place for our customers and partners.”

The complaint on record at the district court alleges infringement of three US patents granted to Kilo-pass (patents: US 6,940,751, US 6,856,540 and US 6,777,757) and that Sidense violated multiple Federal, California and Common Law statutes concerning gross negligence, unfair business practices, false advertising, and defamation. Sidense may try to create further delay by filing an additional motion to dismiss, but if they do not, the next hearing will be the case management conference in early December  where the timetable, including the trial date, will be set.  

“This ruling has reaffirmed our belief that Sidense is not offering solid defense of its IP position,” said Kilopass Vice President of Engineering, Lee Cleveland. “Motions to dismiss in patent infringement cases are almost never successful; however they are commonly used as a stall tactic. Sidense is ap-parently not yet ready to address the real issues in this case.”

Chronology of Kilopass’ IP Protection Actions

• May 14, 2010 – Kilopass filed patent infringement lawsuit against Sidense in United States District Court for the Northern District of California (District Court).
• May 21, 2010 – Kilopass filed a request at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to reexamine Sidense’s U.S. Patent No. 7,402,855, and rule the patent invalid.
• June 4, 2010 – Kilopass filed an amendment to the district court filing to include infringe-ment of two additional US patents granted to Kilopass. The complaint now includes three patents: US 6,940,751, US 6,856,540 and US 6,777,757.  In addition, the complaint also al-leges that Sidense violated multiple Federal, California and Common Law statutes concern-ing gross negligence, unfair business practices, false advertising, and defamation.
• July 29, 2010 – Sidense applied for dismissal of Kilopass’ complaint on procedural grounds, pushing the court action back an additional month.
• August 10, 2010 – Kilopass notified that USPTO has granted its request for reexamination of Sidense’s patent.
• October 14, 2010 – Sidense’s motion for dismissal of Kilopass’ complaint rejected without oral argument. Order granted to proceed to case management hearing.

About Kilopass

Kilopass Technology, Inc., a leading supplier of embedded NVM intellectual property, leverages standard logic CMOS processes to deliver one-time programmable (OTP) memory. With 54 patents granted or pending and more than 500,000 wafers shipped from a dozen foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM), Kilopass has more than 80 customers in applications ranging from storage of firmware and security codes to calibration data and other application-critical information. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. For more information, please visit www.kilopass.com or email info@kilopass.com.