ADI Gains Ground in Fight for Intellectual Property Protection

Analog Devices Inc., as a staunch advocate for unconditional recognition of the value of technological intellectual property rights, has successfully taken its cause to India. The Delhi High Court recently granted an injunction, ordering an India-based distributor to immediately stop importing and distributing energy-metering semiconductor chips from a Chinese semiconductor manufacturer because the chips are counterfeits, which infringe on copyrights and valid patents held by ADI, and because continued piracy represents a substantial threat to both ADI and India's technology industry.

Responding to unlawful counterfeiting of its high-performance energy metering semiconductor chips, ADI filed an intellectual property and passing-off suit and has had its lawsuit validated by the interim injunction. The court found merit in ADI's arguments citing flagrant attempts to harm both ADI and Indian commerce. The suit charges copyright infringement and passing off against Shanghai Belling Co. (Belling), a Chinese semiconductor manufacturer exporting goods to India, and against one of Belling's India-based distributors. The suit states that Belling has copied ADI's energy metering chips and is wrongfully trying to market the counterfeit chips as substitutes for ADI's chips.

The suit alleges chips manufactured by Belling violate the intellectual property of ADI in India, where millions of digital energy metering chips are used in meters to measure the use of electricity in homes, apartments and businesses. Belling, the suit maintains, pirated the technology and sold the counterfeit devices to meter manufacturers throughout India.

ADI's suit also maintains that Belling has engaged in a word-for-word illegal copying of ADI's application note.

For more information, visit www.analog.com.