MPS victorious in case vs. Linear

The United States District Court for the District of Delaware has determined that Monolithic Power Systems (MPS) did not breach its Oct. 1, 2005 settlement and license agreement with Linear Technology Corp. MPS plans to seek recovery of substantial attorney fees and costs from Linear, pursuant to a prevailing party attorneys' fees provision in the settlement and license agreement.

The court also found as a matter of law that MPS had not wilfully infringed the patent claims of U.S. Patent Numbers 5,481,178 and 6,580,258 asserted by Linear against the accused MP1543 product. MPS had discontinued the sales of that product more than 18 months earlier.

The court further found as a matter of law that MPS had not indirectly infringed Linear's asserted patent claims and that Linear had failed to introduce any evidence of infringement by any MPS customer. However, the jury returned a verdict that an evaluation board containing the previously discontinued MP1543 product had directly infringed the asserted patent claims and that Linear's patents mentioned above are valid. The parties had stipulated to a total of $10 in nominal patent infringement damages in the event that Linear prevailed in that dispute.