US Patent Office Grants Oerlikon USA's Review Request

Semiconductor solutions provider Oerlikon USA Inc. of Newton, Mass., a subsidiary of Pfäffikon, Switzerland-based OC Oerlikon Corp. AG, announced today that the US Patent and Trademark Office has granted its request to reexamine Intevac Inc.'s patent number 6,919,001. Intevac told a California court last year Oerlikon infringed this patent with its Racetrack technology for hard disk manufacturing. Intevac, based in Santa Clara, Calif., is a disk sputtering equipment supplier and develops extreme low-light imaging sensors, cameras and systems. The recent decision by the US Patent Office initially determines that all of Intevac's claims regarding this patent are not valid because of prior industry patents held by others. Oerlikon said that all claims asserted against it in the lawsuit are not novel in view of Oerlikon's own prior work in hard-disk technology system development, and that the patent office's decision agrees with Oerlikon that Intevac's patent is invalid and unenforceable, as well as not infringed by Oerlikon's technology.