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ITC REJECTS OAK TECHNOLOGY'S CLAIM OF UNFAIR COMPETITION BY UMC
UMC Expects to Pursue Claims that Oak is Guilty of Inequitable Conduct
SUNNYVALE, Calif., September 28, 1999-UMC Group
today announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)
has affirmed that there was no act of unfair competition by United
Microelectronics Corporation or MediaTek in the case petitioned
by Oak Technology. This ultimate conclusion is in agreement
with the initial determination by Judge Sydney Harris, in favor
of UMC and MediaTek and against Oak Technology. According
to the ITC, there was no act of unfair competition by any of the
respondents and Oak's petition to that effect has once again been
rejected. As a result, UMC will press claims against Oak in U.S.
District Court. In particular, UMC alleges that Oak breached
a settlement agreement and illegally attempted to create a false
impression that UMC wrongfully used Oak intellectual property..
While the final reasoning from the ITC is not expected to be published
for another week (or more), the order clearly establishes that UMC,
MediaTek and their customers have once again been cleared of Oak's
allegations. Under this recent order, the MediaTek chips, including
MediaTek's CD ROM decoder and combo chips, "do not infringe" the
Oak patent, directly or under the doctrine of equivalents.
In the initial determination, Judge Harris also found the Oak patent
to be invalid on several independent grounds and further that Oak
was guilty of "inequitable conduct" in the prosecution of that patent.
Although the decision on these points does not change the conclusion
that there were absolutely no unfair acts by UMC or by Mediatek
(or their customers), the ITC reversed the findings of invalidity
and inequitable conduct. As a result, even though UMC and
MediaTek effectively "won" in the ITC, they are expected to
appeal those reversals to establish before the Federal Circuit what
they allege is wrongdoing by Oak. In addition, and regardless
of the outcome of the appeals to the Federal Circuit, UMC and MediaTek
expect to pursue these parallel claims in the District Court for
the Northern District of California where a companion case has been
pending since last year.
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