TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - April 17, 2014) - ViXS Systems Inc. (TSX: VXS) and ViXS USA, today filed a complaint in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Entropic Communications and several of its customers and importers alleging that these companies have engaged in unfair trade practices by the importation, sale for importation, and sale after importation of certain set-top boxes (STB's), gateways, bridges, switches, and adapters and components thereof that infringe one or more claims of United States Patent Nos. 7,301,900 ("the '900 patent"), 7,099,951 ("the '951 patent"), 7,200,855 ("the '855 patent"), and 7,406,598 ("the '598 patent") (collectively, "the Asserted Patents").
The ITC complaint seeks to stop the importation into the U.S. and sale after importation of a range of products, all of which include Entropic Multimedia over Coax (MoCA) chips or Entropic System-on-Chips (SoC's). For example, the ITC complaint lists several DirecTV STB's that include Entropic MoCA chips. In addition to the ITC action, ViXS will seek damages in federal court through a separate filing.
ViXS' ITC complaint was filed after Entropic had sued ViXS in May 2013 in San Diego federal court for infringement of two Entropic patents. In Entropic's lawsuit, Entropic states that its patents are essential to the MoCA standards and yet accuses ViXS' MoCA chips of patent infringement asking for unspecified relief. In that same case, ViXS filed counterclaims against Entropic, including claims for breach of contract, interference with business relations, and unfair competition. These counterclaims were based in part on Entropic's filing of its San Diego suit while ViXS was in the midst of an initial public offering.
"We filed our complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission to stop Entropic from continuing to use our proprietary technology," said Sally Daub, ViXS President and CEO. "We now look forward to presenting our case to the Commission and plan to vigorously pursue the substantial remedies the Commission may issue."
About ViXS Systems Inc.
ViXS is the pioneer and market leader in designing revolutionary media processing semiconductor solutions for the broadcasting and consumer electronics industries, with over 437 patents issued and pending worldwide, numerous industry awards for innovation, and over 30 million media processor shipments to date. ViXS is driving the transition to Ultra HD 4K across the entire content value chain by providing professional and consumer grade chipsets that support the new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard up to Main 10 Profile, reducing bandwidth consumption by 50% while providing the depth of color and image clarity needed to take advantage of higher-resolution content. ViXS' XCodePro 300 family is ideal for Ultra HD 4K infrastructure equipment, and the XCode 6000 family of system-on-chip (SoC) products achieve unprecedented levels of integration that enable manufacturers to create cost-effective consumer entertainment devices.
ViXS is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with offices in Europe, Asia and North America. VIXS
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