IXYS Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it won its patent-infringement case against International Rectifier Corp. (IR, El Segundo, CA), which it filed in Mannheim, Germany. IXYS had filed a patent-infringement lawsuit charging IR with infringing on at least two of IXYS’s German power-module patents. The claim has been upheld and the court ruled that IR is forbidden to market, utilize, import or possess the infringing products in Germany. The court further ordered IR to pay IXYS’s legal fees, past and future damages, and unjustified enrichment resulting from the infringement. IXYS has been informed that IR intends to appeal the ruling.
“We are pleased with the court ruling in Germany, especially since we feel that IR knew that they were using IXYS technology. This win for IXYS is especially gratifying since German patent law is much stricter than that of the US regarding the standards of patentability and the prosecution phase of the patents,” commented Arnold Agbayani, IXYS’s CFO.
