Jury Awards Johnstech International $636K in Test Contactor Patent Infringement Case

MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwired - Nov 13, 2016) - Johnstech International Corporation takes seriously the task of safeguarding its intellectual property by securing both domestic and international patent, copyright and trademark protections. This is done to ensure that that the company can continuously provide customers with the most advanced and innovative semiconductor test contactor solutions in compliance with the highest global quality standards.

Pursuant to these protections, in June 2014, Johnstech filed a legal action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against a competitor, JF Microtechnology, for infringement of a patent related to Johnstech's ROL® technology -- a key feature of many Johnstech test contactors. Johnstech chose litigation only after it was unable to stop JF Microtechnology from providing infringing test contactors to customers.

On September 27, 2016, a San Francisco jury unanimously found that JF Microtechnology infringed Johnstech's U.S. Patent No. 7,059,866 by offering for sale and selling the Zigma™ test contactor in the U.S. The jury also determined that JF Microtechnology induced customers' infringement when those customers who had purchased Zigma™ test contactors used the device to test integrated circuits. The jury rejected JF Microtechnology's defense that Johnstech's patent was invalid, found that the infringement was willful, and awarded Johnstech $636,807 lost profits as damages.

As a result of the finding of willful infringement, there is a potential that the court will triple damages awarded by the jury and award Johnstech all of its legal expenses. By our calculation, this could result in total damages assessed against JFM Microtechnology in favor of Johnstech between $1.8 million and $4 million. Johnstech will also request that the court permanently bar JF Microtechnology from offering for sale or importing the Zigma™ test contactor, and spare parts for the same, for the life of Johnstech's patent. 

Because the jury found Zigma™ to infringe, users and resellers of this product would also be infringing the patent. In order to prevent any business interruption, Johnstech is offering customers a program to exchange a suitable Johnstech test contactor for any affected Zigma™ device.