Innoscience responds to Infineon lawsuit
Chinese GaN firm Innoscience has responded to recent statements made about patent infringement litigations brought by the German semiconductor giant Infineon.
Infineon obtained a preliminary injunction against Innoscience Europe precluding the company from offering some of Innoscience’s GaN-on-Si power solutions at the recent PCIM Europe 2024 tradeshow, from June 11-13, in Nuremberg.
Innoscience says the injunction was obtained 'ex parte', in other words without its representation or opportunity to comment.
The company accuses Infineon of "odd gamesmanship by providing a cease-and-desist letter to Innoscience suggesting it would seek a preliminary injunction from the Court in Nuremberg, but then sought an injunction from the Court in Munich".
Innoscience adds that it had in good faith contacted the Court in Nuremberg, but because Infineon filed its request for preliminary injunction in a different court, Innoscience was not provided notice or opportunity to defend itself.
The Chinese firm also points out that the single patent raised in the ex parte injunction does not “cover core aspects of GaN power semiconductors.” Instead it is directed at packaging. And because the preliminary injunction applied to the PCIM tradeshow only, it has no effect on Innoscience’s current ability to make, use, sell, offer to sell, or import into Germany GaN products for customers beyond the PCIM tradeshow.
The PCIM injunction concerns a small fraction of Innoscience's packaged high-voltage (650V-700V) GaN transistors and does not affect the vast majority of its other products, according to the company.
To muddy the legal waters further, Infineon has now filed several other patent lawsuits that Innoscience opposes, concerning some of Innoscience’s packaged high-voltage (650V-700V) GaN transistors.
