Mems Technology Berhad (“MemsTech”) announced on January 15, 2009 that an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) with the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") has issued his Initial Determination (ID) in the ITC investigation based on Knowles Electronics LLC's complaint.
In his Initial Determination, the ALJ recommended that Knowles' request for a limited exclusion order barring MemsTech from directly importing certain silicon microphones into the United States be granted. The ALJ's Initial Determination is subject to review by the ITC.MemsTech believes that the ID is erroneous and filed a petition seeking review by the ITC.Based on the evidence presented during the investigation, MemsTech strongly believes that the Final Determination by the ITC, which is now due to be issued no later than April 14, 2009, will be in MemsTech's favor. If necessary, the ITC's Final Determination can be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
"We are very disappointed in the ALJ's decision and we will appeal the case aggressively," said K. Sooriakumar, Chief Executive Officer of MemsTech."We believe the ALJ's decision invalidating one claim of one of the two asserted patents is correct, but incomplete because we believe the evidence showed that all of the asserted claims are invalid and not infringed. Although this matter is important to
MemsTech, the scope of the ITC investigation is very limited and does not impact our customers’ ability to import downstream products into the U.S. that contain MemsTech's silicon microphones."
The ITC's Office of Unfair Import Investigations Staff ("Staff"), an independent party to the investigation representing the public interest, supported MemsTech in the ITC investigation and both MemsTech and the Staff have now filed petitions urging the ITC to review the ID.
“MemsTech’s microphones are protected by its own intellectual property. MemsTech has demonstrated its leadership and innovation, and respects other’s intellectual property. MemsTech’s innovation is evidenced by the fact that the U.S. Department of Commerce has granted it a license to manufacture other sensitive technological products. We will fight vigorously to rightfully protect our microphone products that have emerged from our years of research and innovation in the field of MEMS. We are confident that we will ultimately prevail in the ITC matter," said Srini Naidu, MemsTech`s U.S. Executive Director.