Rudolph Wins Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Camtek

Rudolph Technologies Inc., a process control software manufacturer, has won a patent infringement lawsuit against process control metrology system manufacturer Camtek Ltd., upholding an infringement ruling against Camtek’s Falcon inspection system.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed Rudolph’s patent, awarding damages in excess of $14.5 million, and imposed a permanent injunction that prohibits Camtek from making, using, selling and offering to sell any of its Falcon machines in the U.S. until the patent’s expiration.

”We are pleased that the Federal Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision in this case so quickly after the hearing held on Feb. 1,” said Robert Koch, Rudolph’s vice president and general counsel. “As we have asserted from the beginning of this matter, Camtek has been using Rudolph’s proprietary technology. This decision is extremely gratifying in that it clearly validates Rudolph’s position and holds Camtek accountable for its use of our patented technology in its tool offering.”

Rudolph is actively prosecuting additional patent lawsuits against Camtek over their Condor, Gannet and Eagle products, seeking both monetary damages and a permanent injunction against the sale of those items in the U.S.

Rudolph Technologies is a designs, develops and manufactures defect inspection, lithography, process control metrology and process control software used by semiconductor and advanced packaging device manufacturers worldwide.

Camtek designs, develops, manufactures and markets automated optical inspection and process enhancement systems for production processes and yields for manufacturers in the printed circuit board, integrated circuit substrate, semiconductor manufacturing and packaging industries.