( ESNUG 558 Item 9 ) ---------------------------------------------- [03/10/16]
Subject: SCOOP -- CA Jury finds for SNPS in Atoptech copyright infringement
Out of 12 allegations Aart's lawyers made against Atoptech back in 2013, in
the 31 months since then all that's left now are:
- Synopsys patent 6,405,348 (software can use crosstalk aggressor
net analysis while doing STA timing) -- is it obvious?
- Synopsys patent 6,507,941 (using detailed subgrid routing to find
wire locations at the grid level) -- is it obvious?
- Are the 100+ or so PrimeTime commands copyright protected or not?
So after all this dumbshit lawyer Sturm und Drang, it looks like Atoptech
is finally getting some well deserved breakthroughs in court. EDA shouldn't
be about suing; it should be about writing better chip design SW.
- John Cooley of DeepChip.com
from http://www.deepchip.com/items/0556-02.html 6 weeks ago
From: [ John Cooley of DeepChip.com ]
That quote above was 6 weeks ago. Here below is news!
SCOOP! -- My spies tell me that after two days of deliberation, at 11:00
today an 8-person jury voted in U.S. District Court of Northern California
in San Francisco (Judge Maxine Chesney presiding) to find Atoptech guilty
of infringing on SNPS' copyrighted Primetime commands.
They told me the jury awarded $30 million to Synopsys; $8 million for the
PrimeTime copyright violation itself, and $22 million for lost ICC/ICC2
sales that SNPS suffered. (The SNPS lawyers claimed that since SNPS owned
65% of the PnR market, SNPS should get 65% of AtopTech sales.)
Although it's bad, this does not mean the end of Atoptech, though.
From what I've heard, Atoptech won't have to pay a dime to SNPS until there
is a final judgement in all the cases against ATOP. Today was just the
PrimeTime copyright part. The two patents ('348 and '941) are still pending
until Feb 2017 (11 months from now.) After that, it'll be appeals which will
take an additional 12 to 18 months.
This adds up to 23 to 29 months from now. A lot can happen in that time!
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Although Aart de Geus seems to not be doing too well in his patent lawsuits
(for example, having his three Brent Gregory and Russ Segal key patents to
Design Compiler being found not "patent-eligible" -- OR -- then the $36M in
damages Aart had to pay for his SNPS/EVE vs. MENT emulation patent lawsuit),
Aart's lawyers do seem to know how to win a copyright infringement case.)
- John Cooley
DeepChip.com Holliston, MA
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Related Articles
Aart's sue rivals policy backfires horribly on core SNPS patents
Aart's sue rivals policy backfires to tune of $36M in damages
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