Tela Seeks Temporary ITC Exclusion Order Against 6 Chipmakers, PC Vendors

Comments are due Dec. 31 in docket 337-3515 at the International Trade Commission on the public-interest ramifications of the exclusion and cease-and-desist orders Tela Innovations seeks against six prominent chipmakers and PC vendors for allegedly infringing a January 2019 semiconductor production patent (10,186,523), said Wednesday’s Federal Register. “A push for higher performance and smaller die size drives the semiconductor industry to reduce circuit chip area” by about half every two years, said the patent. The invention proposes a solution for managing “lithographic gap” as technology continues to progress toward “smaller semiconductor device features sizes,” it said. Acer, Asus, Intel, Lenovo, Micro-Star and MSI Computer are the proposed respondents in Tela’s Dec. 18 complaint. Since Tela’s allegations involve the same accused products that the ITC found to infringe the same claims of the patent in an earlier investigation, “Tela is more than likely to succeed on the merits in proving that these same products infringe the same valid and enforceable claims,” it said in a motion (login required) for a temporary exclusion order: “Absent preliminary relief, Respondents will be able to continue importing, selling for importation, or selling after importation these infringing products, which will result in substantial, irreversible, and unjustifiable injury to Tela, its licensees, and its licensees’ customers.” None of the proposed respondents commented Wednesday.