September 27, 2007 04:30 PM

The TPL Group Files Appeal to Reverse Markman Claim Construction for US ‘584 Patent in MMP™ Portfolio

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As planned, the TPL Group today announced it has filed an appeal to reverse the June 18, 2007 Markman ruling regarding the “instruction groups” claim construction for US Patent 5,784,584 (US ‘584) in the Moore Microprocessor Patent™ (MMP) Portfolio. The appeal closely follows the stipulation proposed by TPL for a judgment of non-infringement of US ‘584. TPL urged entry of the judgment in order to simplify and streamline the MMP Portfolio infringement trial in the US District Court in the Eastern District of Texas scheduled to take place in January 2008, and to enable an immediate appeal of the narrowly adverse Markman ruling regarding the single US ‘584 claim construction.

“As we have noted in prior public announcements, we believe that the claim construction for ‘instruction groups’ requires more scrutiny than the Texas Court was able to give it during the Markman hearing due to time and space constraints,” said Dan Leckrone, Chairman of The TPL Group. “Apart from the need for further scrutiny on this single claim construction, the Texas Court demonstrated great skill in dissecting and dealing with a very complex case over a 15-month period. We believe the June 18th Markman ruling overwhelmingly supports MMP Portfolio claims against Matsushita, Panasonic, JVC, Toshiba, and NEC entities.”

As a result of the stipulation requested by TPL, the Texas Court infringement trial will focus on only two US patents in the MMP Portfolio, the 5,809,336 and the 6,598,148. TPL asserts that the June 18th Markman ruling broadly confirmed the strength of MMP claims including the very significant affirmation of US 5,809,336 as applied to both modern PLL-based and non PLL-based systems.

Leckrone Asserts "Misleading ARM News Release"

Leckrone noted that ARM issued a news release on September 20, 2007 that “was misleading” in that it implied the Texas Court somehow passed a judgment of non-infringement in favor of ARM. In point of fact, it was TPL who initiated the partial non-infringement stipulation to pave the way for a speedier trial and TPL’s opportunity to appeal the single Markman ruling on the “instruction groups” claims construction. He declared, “The fact that TPL gave ARM a judgment of non-infringement was purely procedural as well as temporary until the reversal of the US ‘584 ruling.”

According to Leckrone, all ARM core families (ARM7, ARM9, ARM9E, ARM10E, ARM11) and the ARM Cortex microprocessor core family do infringe upon the US ‘584 as well as US 5,440,749 in the MMP Portfolio. He warned that all manufacturers of end user products using infringing ARM processors – with the exception of the 20 global manufacturers who have already purchased MMP Portfolio licenses – are infringers of technology protected by the MMP Portfolio. “The longer infringers wait to purchase an MMP license, the more they can expect to pay because our program is designed to reward first-movers in various industry categories.”

The sweeping scope of applications using MMP design techniques continues to encourage manufacturers of end user products from around the globe to become MMP licensees. Since January 2006, HP, Casio, Fujitsu, Sony, Nikon, Seiko Epson, Pentax, Olympus, Kenwood, Agilent, Lexmark, Schneider Electric, NEC Corporation, Funai Electric, SanDisk, Sharp Corporation, Nokia, Bull, LEGO Group, and Denso Wave have all purchased MMP Portfolio licenses.

About the MMP Portfolio

The Moore Microprocessor Patent Portfolio contains intellectual property that is jointly owned by the privately-held TPL Group and publicly-held Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTCBB: PTSC). The portfolio includes seven U.S. patents as well as their European and Japanese counterparts. It is becoming widely recognized that the jointly-owned patents protect fundamental technology used in designing microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), embedded processors and system-on-chip (SoC) devices. The MMP Portfolio is exclusively managed by Alliacense, a TPL Group Enterprise.