Cisco Wins Syntest over BIST Techniques

Case Filed: Jun 26, 2014

Origin Case: 5:12-cv-05965

Case Summary:

Sunnyvale, California-based Syntest Technologies filed a complaint against San Jose based Cisco, a manufacturer of computer networking products and services alleging that three of their U.S. patents were infringed. The complaint was filed in Nov 2012 in California Northern District Court. According to the court documents, the suit concerned Cisco, a former customer of Syntest for developing and using application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) covered by the patents-in-suit without a valid license.

Patents-in-Suit:

The patents involved in the suit were:

·        US7007213 entitled ‘Multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults during self-test or scan-test,’ issued on Feb 28, 2006

·        US7434126 entitled ‘Computer-aided design (CAD) multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults,’ issued on Oct 07, 2008

·        US7779323 entitled ‘Multiple-capture DFT system for detecting or locating crossing clock-domain faults during self-test or scan-test,’ issued on Aug 17, 2010

All the patents expire[i] by Feb 07, 2022 and as per the complaint, Syntest is the owner of these patents.

The ‘213, ‘126 and ‘323 patents relate to the detection or location of logic faults within each clock domain and logic faults crossing any two clock domains, during self-test or scan-test, in an integrated circuit or circuit assembly.

As in Complaint:

Syntest alleged that Cisco has infringed Syntest patents through the manufacture, use, sale and/or offer for sale of devices employing BIST technology including products and services associated with Cisco switch, router and network products. The products cited are: Cisco Catalyst Switches, Cisco Routers, Cisco Security Products and Cisco Access Servers that were designed and sold from 2006.

District Court Proceedings:

In Jun 09, the parties submitted ten claim construction disputes from the asserted patents following which the court opinionated that the claims were not infringed by Cisco. A week later, the judgment was rendered in favor of Cisco against Syntest.

Appeal Court:

The case is currently with the appeal court as Syntest filed a notice of appeal concerning district court’s judgment.

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[i] 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.

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.