CLIENT SUCCESS
PATENT INFRINGEMENT ANALYSIS: COPPERPOD HELPS PATENT OWNER ENFORCE FIRMWARE GENERATION PATENT AGAINST 35 SYSTEM-ON-CHIP (Soc) MANUFACTURERS
Challenge
The client was evaluating a patent portfolio related to development of firmware for System-on-Chip (SoC) and Microcontroller Unit (MCU) products. The evaluation required expertise and technical skills relevant not only to software development but also complex semiconductor products.
The client's patent disclosed a novel method for generating firmware code for embedded systems. The invention introduced an abstraction layer allowing firmware developers to auto-generate much of the code components and thereby reduce the overall time it takes to develop hardware-specific firmware for highly customizable SoCs and MCUs.
Solution
Copperpod reviewed the patent in depth to evaluate its monetization potential and identified the market segments and the major players in the market that make, use or sell products that infringed the patent claims. Exhaustive research was done into well-known SDKs and SoC products provided by various semiconductor companies. After a thorough study of the patents, our experts shortlisted 35 such companies as potential targets, sorted according to geography, revenue and major customers.
KEY INSIGHT
Testing the product and performing the claimed steps can strengthen infringement position much more than documentation and marketing literature that may not reveal each and every functionality of the product.
Copperpod experts downloaded the SDKs for each of the target products and performed the claimed steps for a dummy SoC product to collect the relevant evidence.
Success
Copperpod worked closely with the client providing ad-hoc technical analysis throughout the monetization campaign including refining positions after case filing and during settlement negotiations with more than a dozen companies - resulting in several favorable out-of-court settlement agreements for the client.