Lawsuit Summary - Microunity Systems vs. Apple et al.

Case Filed: Mar 16, 2010

Case Closed: Jul 16, 2013

Court: Texas Eastern District Court

Judge: Leonard Davis

Case Summary:

Microunity filed a suit alleging 22 cellphone companies and service providers infringe 16 of its patents. The defendant list included Acer, Apple, AT&T, Google, HTC, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sprint, Texas Instruments, Cellco, Exedea and Palm. Microunity alleged that infringing products included TI's OMAP-3 and OMAP-4 processors, Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, the Apple iPhone 3GS, Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, Nokia N900 and Palm Pre handsets. 

Microunity said defendants violated the following patents:

Patent Numbers Current Assignee[i]	Issued Date	Expiration Date[ii]	Title
US5742840 Microunity	Apr 21, 1998	Aug 16, 2015	General purpose, multiple precision parallel operation, programmable media processor
US5794061	Aug 11, 1998	Aug 16, 2015	General purpose, multiple precision parallel operation, programmable media processor
US6725356	Apr 20, 2004	Aug 16, 2015	System with wide operand architecture, and method
US5737547 Microunity	Apr 07, 1998	Jun 07, 2015	System for placing entries of an outstanding processor request into a free pool after the request is accepted by a corresponding peripheral device
US5812799 Microunity	Sep 22, 1998	Sep 22, 2015	Non-blocking load buffer and a multiple-priority memory system for real-time multiprocessing
US7213131	May 01, 2007	Aug 16, 2015	Programmable processor and method for partitioned group element selection operation
US7216217	May 08, 2007	Aug 16, 2015	Programmable processor with group floating-point operations
US6006318 Microunity	Dec 21, 1999	Aug 16, 2015	General Purpose, Dynamic Partitioning, Programmable Media Processor
US6427190	Jul 30, 2002	Oct 10, 2015	Configurable Cache Allowing Cache-Type and Buffer-Type Access
US7260708	Aug 21, 2007	Aug 16, 2015	Programmable Processor and Method for Partitioned Group Shift
US7353367	Apr 01, 2008	Aug 16, 2015	System and Software for Catenated Group Shift Instruction
US7509366	Mar 24, 2009	Aug 16, 2015	Multiplier Array Processing System with Enhanced Utilization at Lower Precision
US7653806	Jan 26, 2010	Aug 16, 2015	Method and Apparatus for Performing lmproved Group Floating-Point Operations
US7660972	Feb 09, 2010	Aug 16, 2015	Method and Software for Partitioned Floating- Point Multiply-Add Operation
US7660973 Microunity	Feb 09, 2010	Aug 16, 2015	System and Apparatus for Group Data Operations
RE39500	Feb 27, 2007	Oct 10, 2015	Configurable cache allowing cache-type and buffer-type access

Source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database. As per the complaint, all the patents are assigned to Microunity.

The complaint sought:

• Judgment of infringement
• Money damages
• Permanent enjoinment from using their patents
• Attorneys’ fees and other relief, the Court may deem just and proper

The case is now concluded as all the parties have reached a settlement, the last one to settle the case was Apple. Parties having filed motion for dismissal pursuant to the settlement, the Court ordered all the claims and counterclaims dismissed without prejudice. Further terms of settlement were not disclosed. Attorneys’ fees, costs of court, and expenses are to be borne by each party incurring the same.  

See case 2:10-cv-00091 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

Are you looking for a tool to calculate patent terms? Try Patent Term Estimator, our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.  

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

[ii] 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