Philips and Linear Technology settle patent dispute

NEW YORK -- Royal Philips Electronics N.V. today announced a patent lawsuit settlement with Linear Technology Corp. related to technology for two-wire bus systems for controlling communications between ICs.

Philips continues to sue Analog Devices, Cypress Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Standard Microsystems Corp. for alleged infringement of its U.S. patent No. 4,689,740. The two-wire bus technology is used in Philips' I2C/SMBus IC communications scheme.

Linear Technology of Milpitas, Calif., is the second company to reach a settlement with Philips regarding the patent suit. Cirrus Logic Inc. of Austin, Tex., settled its dispute with Philips five months ago.

Under the settlement, Philips and Linear Technology plan to file a joint motion to dismiss all claims between the companies. In addition, the parties have entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement under which Linear Technology is a licensee of Philips' I2C/SMBus patent rights. Other terms were not released.

Philips filed suit against the six U.S.-based chip companies last fall to collect damages in "tens of millions of dollars". Originally developed in the 1970s, the I2C bus is a serial data path thatis used to interconnect semiconductors on circuit boards in TVs, audio components, telephones and a wide range of other consumer electronics equipment.