Cypress, AMD settle PLD litigation

Electronic News, April 8, 1996 by Crista Hardie

San Jose, Calif.--Winding down nearly a year of legal wrangling, Cypress Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices called a truce last week, signing a cross-license agreement for programmable logic devices (PLDs).

The settlement ends the bickering over certain PLD patents, but it is not a technology or product exchange. A Cypress spokesman characterized the agreement as a "patent protection settlement."

While specific settlement terms were not revealed, the general terms allow each company to continue producing current PLD product lines without threat of litigation. Patents filed by each company between now and 1998 are also covered.

"Both Cypress and AMD agreed that our legal activities were at loggerheads and consuming valuable management time," said Cypress president and CEO T.J. Rodgers. "We can now turn our full attention to more constructive activities, more closely related to running a competitive semiconductor business."

Rich Forte, AMD group VP and president of the company's new Programmable Logic subsidiary (EN, March 18), added, "This is a mutually beneficial agreement that allows AMD to focus its resources on growing our business. The litigation is now over, and AMD and Cypress have resolved all issues related to the lawsuits."

The dispute dates back to last June, when AMD sued Cypress in a Delaware court, alleging Cypress' FLASH 370 PLD family infringed seven AMD patents related to its MACH family of PLDs. The complaint also alleged certain devices within Cypress' CY7C340 erasable PLD (EPLD) family infringed AMD patents (EN, June 12, 1995).

Cypress later countersued in San Jose, claiming AMD had interfered with distributor relationships while the original suit was still pending, by describing nonexistent settlement terms that included Cypress discontinuing its complex PLD (CPLD) parts. Cypress claimed AMD's alleged deed caused certain unnamed distributors to cease dealings with Cypress (EN, Dec. 11, 1995). Neither company was willing to comment on the claim, however.

While the overall PLD market grew 87 percent last year, and may grow another 50-60 percent this year, according to Rhondalee Rohleder of Pace Technologies, Cypress' CPLD sales have been somewhat flat for the last year. Indeed, the company said it expects flat demand for CPLDs overall during 1996 after what it called an extraordinary 1995 (EN, Jan. 15).