Innoscience gives EPC lawsuit update
US Patent and Trademark Office to review two EPC patents
Chinese GaN-on-Si company Innoscience says it welcomes two decisions, from March 20, 2024, by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to institute a review of the validity of two remaining US patents, as asserted by Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) against Innoscience.
In these decisions, the USPTO wrote that “there is a reasonable likelihood that Petitioner [Innoscience] would prevail with respect to at least one of the claims challenged in the Petition.”
In May 2023, EPC initiated legal proceedings against Innoscience in both the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, DC and a US district court in California, alleging infringement of four EPC patents by certain Innoscience GaN devices.
Innoscience denied EPC’s allegations of infringement as well as the validity of the EPC patents and filed an inter partes review (IPR) petitions in the USPTO,.
The district court litigation was halted pending resolution of the ITC case, and during the ITC investigation, EPC withdrew two of its four original patents. The ITC held a hearing on these two remaining patents in February/March, 2024, and the ITC will issue initial determination by June 3, 2024, with a final determination due by October 3, 2024, which may be subject to extensions of time.
The USPTO’s March 20, 2024 rulings are the latest developments related to EPC’s lawsuits against Innoscience. Innoscience says that in these recent rulings, ,three judges from the USPTO have initially agreed that the EPC patents that Innoscience challenged at the USPTO are invalid. In at least one case, Innoscience argued to the USPTO that the challenged EPC patent was invalid, based on a prior patent of an EPC cofounder/inventor when he was at International Rectifier, and on a preliminary basis, according to the institution decision, the USPTO agreed with Innoscience.
The case continues ...
