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.
