Lawsuit Summary – SynTest Technologies vs. Cisco Systems

On Wednesday, November 21, 2012, SynTest (plaintiff) lodged a complaint against Cisco (defendant) for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court of California (case no. 5:12-cv-05965). 

SynTest Technologies provides software-based testing systems used by chip designers to analyze and debug designs for integrated circuits. Established in 1990, SynTest has offices in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the US, with distributors in other countries as well. Cisco Systems designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipment. Cisco was founded in 1984 by a small group of computer scientists from Stanford University.

The patents involved in this suit are:

Patent Number Current Assignee[*]	Issued Date	Expiration Date[†]	Title
US7007213 SynTest	Feb 28, 2006	Feb 07, 2022	Multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults during self-test or scan-test
US7434126 SynTest (as per face page)	Oct 07, 2008	Feb 07, 2022	Computer-aided design (CAD) multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults
US7779323 SynTest (as per face page)	Aug 17, 2012	Feb 07, 2022	Multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults during self-test or scan-test

Note: Table information sourced from MaxVal’s Assignment Database.

The technology described in the above patents is BIST (built-in self-test) using a staggered clocking scheme to improve the test and diagnosis of integrated circuits in a system. According to the complaint, SynTest alleges that Cisco has infringed their patents by making use of BIST technology in the products and services, including Cisco Catalyst Switches, Cisco Routers, Cisco Security Products and Cisco Access Servers.   

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[*] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[†] Expected expiration date.  Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.