Score-draw for GaN patent battle
The battle over gallium nitride (GaN) patents between Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) in the US and Innoscience in China saw both sides winning parts of the lawsuits.
A third decision on the GaN patents is due in November that will determine whether Innoscience GaN parts will be banned from the US market.
Innoscience Technology says has defeated the entirety of EPC’s ’508 patent in the initial determination at the ITC. No violation was found on claim 1 (the only asserted claim) of the ’508 patent.
“This is a huge success at the ITC for Innoscience,” said the company.
However the Chief Administrative Law Judge found Innoscience violated the EPC ’294 patent, although Innoscience disagrees with the Administrative Law Judge as it says the patent is invalid. The ’294 IPR decision is expected in March 2025.
The ’508 and ’294 patents asserted by EPC are currently under review by the USPTO. Claims 1-12 of the ’294 patent and claims 1-5 of the ’508 patent are challenged as obvious in view of the prior art, and Innoscience also challenged two additional EPC patents, which EPC withdrew in May.
Innoscience calls the lawsuits are ‘misguided’ and says it is confident that it will achieve a complete victory in the dispute with EPC. There is a a July 29 deadline for responding to petitions and the target date for this investigation is November 5, 2024.
Alongside the favourable decision on ‘294, EPC also points to two recent decisions from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), which similarly validated EPC’s counterpart patents in China.
“The ITC’s finding that Innoscience uses our patented technology without authorization puts EPC in an enviable position, as U.S. and Chinese regulatory bodies have upheld the validity of our patents,” said Alex Lidow, CEO and Co-Founder of EPC. “The Commission’s recommendations validate nearly two decades of hard work, resources and R&D that went into developing EPC’s uniquely valuable intellectual property portfolio,” said Lidow.
EPC has a portfolio of over 200 GaN-related patents and over 150 products, including integrated circuits, automotive qualified and radiation hardened devices. Infineon has also filed a lawsuit against Innoscience over GaN patents that would impact on the European and US markets.
China’s Innoscience responds to Infineon’s European GaN lawsuits
www.epc-co.com; www.innoscience.com; www.infineon.com
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