USPTO Affirms Kilopass Ownership of The 1T Anti-Fuse Memory Bit Cell

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

USPTO Decision Irrelevant to Kilopass District Court Lawsuit Against Sidense

Santa Clara, Calif. –– January 26, 2011 –– Kilopass Technology Inc., a leading provider of semiconductor logic non-volatile memory (NVM) IP, announced today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has made two rulings on its request to re-examine Sidense’s patent No. 7,402,855.  It affirmed Kilopass ownership of the fundamental 1T anti-fuse bit cell, and it also affirmed Sidense’s patent claims on peripheral circuitry.  The ruling on the memory bit-cell, while expected, is an important milestone in Kilopass’ litigation against Sidense at the U.S. district court.  On the USPTO ruling of the peripheral circuitry, Kilopass disagrees with the USPTO and plans to appeal the decision. 

Sidense’s ‘855 patent has had a long and tortuous prosecution history.  After several rejections by the USPTO, including the seminal conference meeting in May 2008, Sidense dropped all anti-fuse memory bit cell claims, and eventually was granted the ‘855 patent covering differential-sense amplifier circuitry.  While the USPTO affirms these peripheral circuitry claims, it clearly states that: “… as made clear in the original claim 1, applicant did not contest that Peng (founder of Kilopass and inventor of anti-fuse memory bit cells) discloses each of the claim 1 elements except for a sense amplifier...” This puts on record Sidense’s acknowledgement, even back to 2008 or earlier, that Kilopass has ownership of the anti-fuse bit cell patent.

Furthermore, while the USPTO ruling adds further credence to Kilopass’ IP ownership, it does not change the nature of Kilopass’ litigation against Sidense:  that Sidense violates at least three of Kilopass’ patents covering 1T anti-fuse memory bit cell.

“Today’s decision has no relevance in the ongoing district court case Kilopass filed against Sidense over 7 months ago,” said Lee Cleveland, vice president of Engineering of Kilopass, “other than it serves to further highlight the willful infringement cited in our complaint against Sidense.”

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 58 patents granted or pending and more than 800,000 wafers shipped from a dozen foundries and Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDM), Kilopass has more than 100 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, visit www.kilopass.com or email info@kilopass.com.