SAES Getters has announced that it has sued Innovative Micro Technology (IMT) for patent infringement. In its complaint, SAES Getters asserts that IMT infringes US Patent No. 6,897,551 with its recently announced getter deposition services for wafer-level packaging of MEMS.
SAES Getters seeks to enjoin IMT from further infringing US Patent No. 6,897,551 and for damages for past infringement. SAES further seeks a court order of assignment of any patent applications derived from information received from SAES. The complaint was assigned case number 07-CV-2632 and is filed with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Los Angeles Division.
"In an increasingly competitive economy where intangible, knowledge-based assets have become keys to the corporate success, intellectual property protection plays a fundamental role," commented Massimo della Porta, Chief Executive Officer of the SAES Getters Group. "With an R&D annual average expenditure of 10 percent of the sales revenues and with over 350 innovations patented so far across the world, SAES Getters regards its intellectual property as one of the company's most strategic assets. SAES has made a significant investment over the years in the development of its proprietary PageWafer technology and intends to safeguard that investment."
Patented by SAES Getters and adopted in wafer-level packaged MEMS, PageWafer technology consists of a wafer with a patterned getter film, a few microns thick, that is placed onto specific cavities of any shape and depth. By providing maximized sorption of all active gases like H2O, O2, CO, CO2, N2 and H2, PageWafer guarantees long term stability to vacuum or to inert gas atmosphere in wafer-to-wafer hermetically bonded MEMS devices.
