SAN JOSE – A court hearing on alleged infringement of Tessera Technologies’ patents is now scheduled in late February.
 
The court date is the latest move in the U.S. International Trade Commission’s investigation regarding possible infringement of Tessera’s patents by Qualcomm, Freescale, Motorola, ATI Technologies, ULC, Spansion and ST Microelectronics.

On Sept. 7, Tessera filed with the ITC for permission to use certain confidential information to initiate a parallel action against several assembly service providers, including ASE, ChipMOS Technologies, Siliconware Precision Industries and STATS ChipPAC.

On Sept. 12, the providers filed a motion requesting the court stop Tessera from moving forward on the basis of the forum selection clauses in their respective Tessera license agreements.

Tessera’s ongoing arbitration with Amkor Technology regarding a failure to pay royalties due under its license agreement is proceeding toward a March 31 hearing. Tessera seeks a substantial monetary recovery from Amkor. Amkor has submitted an expert report contending that Tessera’s patents are invalid.

Tessera seeks remedies for infringement of its technology in two pending district court patent infringement actions, one in the Northern District of California and one in the Eastern District of Texas. Tessera’s right to recover damages against the California action defendants is expected to continue during the pending ITC action.

After a hearing on Nov. 1, the court issued an order permitting Tessera to file a complaint against the ASP defendants in the ITC or elsewhere.

In the Eastern District of Texas, the parties have stipulated the litigation will be temporarily stayed.

BOSTON – Sales of backhaul transport equipment will grow 43% annually over the next five years, reaching $7.3 billion by 2012, says Ovum RHK.
 
Component demand related to backhaul transport equipment will exceed $1 billion by 2012, the company adds, citing a five-year forecast of wireless backhaul traffic, services, equipment and components.
 
Traffic on mobile backhaul networks will grow by 32% per year, driven by the adoption of mobile broadband services around the globe, and mobile operators will spend $37 billion globally on wireless backhaul in 2012, nearly 12% of total operating expense, Ovum says. 
 
“Mobile operators today are challenged to grow backhaul capacity quickly, flexibly, and economically, to support rapid growth in bandwidth-intensive mobile data services,” said Ovum VP John Lively. “Fortunately, many new architectures and equipment innovations will allow them to meet this challenge."

JASPER, IN – Kimball International reported sales of $333.9 million in the first quarter of 2008, an increase of 7.2% year-over-year. Income from continuing operations was $6.6 million.
 

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KUALA LUMPUR – Unisem, a maker of semiconductor test and packaging equipment, announced record revenue of $90.9 million for the third quarter, up 70.9% year-over-year. The company’s net profit ($9.23 million) grew 73.7% year-over-year.

Sequentially, sales were up 89%, while net profit increased 12%. 

The significant upsurge in revenue was attributed to increased sales volume, revenue and profit contribution from Unisem Mauritius (formerly known as Advanced Interconnect Technologies Ltd.) after the acquisition in July, higher capacity utilization, and significant reduction in operating losses from both its China and European subsidiaries.

Year-to-date, the group recorded revenue of $182.9 million, an increase of 17.6% year-over-year.

Year-to-date net profit was $18.2 million, a 10.4% increase year-over-year.

John Chia, group managing director said, “Unisem expects the group’s revenue and earnings to improve further … the business of the group will remain strong in the fourth quarter.”