Plaintiff Awarded $6.8 Million in Damages for Infringement of Microchip Patent

Merchant & Gould, an intellectual property law firm, today announced it has won a major patent litigation victory on behalf of Rudolph Technologies, Inc. over Camtek, Ltd. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota ruled today that all models of Camtek's Falcon inspection system literally infringe Rudolph's US patent no. 6,826,298 for an Automated Wafer Defect Inspection System And A Process Of Performing Such Inspection which covers a system and method for inspection of wafers which hold microchips. In awarding approximately $6.8M to Rudolph, the jury also rejected entirely Camtek's arguments that Rudolph's '6,298 patent is invalid.

Dan McDonald, lead counsel for Rudolph Technologies and a partner at Merchant & Gould's Minneapolis office, said it was his team's technical experience that brought about this verdict. "Much of the credit for this favorable result has to do with understanding the technology inside and out, and the collaborative effort of our team and our client to communicate the issues clearly," said McDonald.

Merchant & Gould plans to seek post-trial motions for an injunction to prevent the sale in the U.S. of all models of the Falcon inspection systems. Camtek Ltd. is represented by Fish & Richardson P.C.