US Supreme Court Denies Wang Petition in Patent Suit: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation/Mitsubishi Electronics America Victory is Confirmed

October 14, 1997 -- The Supreme Court of the United States has denied Wang Laboratories' petition for a writ of certiorari, an action that in effect confirms Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Electronics America's (hereafter "Mitsubishi") victory in the patent infringement suit between Mitsubishi and Wang relating to Single In-line Memory Modules (SIMMs).

In January 1995, the Federal District Court for the Central District of California ruled that, of the two Wang patents-in-suit, Mitsubishi did not infringe on one and had an implied license under the other. The court thus denied Wang's claims for injunctions and damages. Wang appealed its case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) which affirmed the district court's decision in January 1997. Wang then submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court asking it to review the CAFC's decision. With the Supreme Court's denial of Wang's petition, all claims Wang had against Mitsubishi have been dismissed.

The patents in question (US patents 4,656,605 and 4,727,513) concern the Single In-line Memory Module, a technology consisting of nine DRAMs mounted in a row on one side of a printed-circuit board with thirty terminals and a capacitor to guard against memory loss due to current spikes.

About Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and its North American affiliate, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc., are world-class suppliers of semiconductors and electronic products for computers, communications, and visual applications. Mitsubishi combines its systems-level expertise and high-level silicon process technology to provide chip, chipset and system-on-a-chip solutions. The company is ranked among the top 10 worldwide semiconductor suppliers and offers an extensive range of semiconductor-based products in the North American marketplace, including microcontrollers and microprocessors, ASICs, memory ICs, optoelectronic products, microwave GaAs FETs, MPEG codecs, and flat-panel displays.