CEO Letter: Impinj Prevails in Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against NXP
Impinj CEO Chris Diorio comments on NXP UCODE IC patent infringement, intellectual property, and fair and lawful competition
To our partners and customers in the RAIN RFID community,
Last week, a Texas jury gave Impinj another win in our ongoing patent-infringement lawsuit against NXP. Impartial juries in three separate US federal trials, in Washington, California and now Texas, have found that NXP infringes Impinj patents and Impinj does not infringe NXP patents. Additionally, NXP has withdrawn all three of its patent-infringement lawsuits against Impinj in China.
These trials stem from a patent-infringement lawsuit Impinj filed against NXP’s UCODE products in 2019, after we tried unsuccessfully for nearly two years to resolve without litigating. In this most recent trial, which concluded November 9, 2023, the Texas jury held that NXP infringed three Impinj patents and that Impinj did not infringe two patents NXP recently licensed from a third party. This decision follows a July 2023 verdict (see my July 2023 Letter below) by a California jury that NXP infringed two Impinj patents, one willfully. That decision follows a June 2023 Washington jury finding that Impinj did not infringe an NXP patent. To date, Impinj has been awarded nearly $15 million in damages and lost profits and the right to receive ongoing royalties on NXP's sales of infringing products into the United States.
The infringed patents include key Impinj endpoint IC technologies related to Impinj Enduro and Integra features, sensitivity-improving rectifier technology and key circuit implementations that enhance the performance and efficiency of our endpoint ICs.
Although this litigation is not over, with additional upcoming trials in California and Texas, we are pleased with the outcome to date and confident in our ability to protect our innovations while also supporting global, royalty-free standards. We thank the jurors who listened carefully to the evidence, deliberated and delivered their judgments.
Chris Diorio
CEO Impinj, Inc
July 16, 2023 Letter
To our partners and customers in the RAIN RFID community,
Two impartial juries have found that NXP Semiconductors infringed Impinj’s intellectual property while Impinj has not infringed NXP’s intellectual property.
On July 14, a federal jury in California found that NXP infringed two Impinj patents, one willfully, awarding Impinj approximately $18.5 million in damages and lost profits. In June, a federal jury in Washington determined that Impinj did not infringe an NXP patent on which NXP sued Impinj. The two cases stem from a patent-infringement lawsuit Impinj filed against NXP’s UCODE products in 2019, after attempting unsuccessfully for nearly two years to resolve without litigation.
The infringed patents include key Impinj endpoint IC technologies related to Impinj Enduro technology, which provides a robust IC-to-antenna connection, and power-harvesting circuitry, which improves RAIN RFID tag sensitivity.
Impinj is passionately inventive. Our more than 300 issued and allowed patents in RAIN RFID, the market we helped pioneer, reflect our significant investment, dedication and sheer hard work. They are also the foundation of our platform and the enterprise solutions it enables.
We were disheartened to see a large company copy the patented inventions of a small, innovative company like ours. We take our responsibility to protect our inventions seriously, which is why we felt we had no option but to pursue litigation. We thank the jurors who listened carefully to the evidence, deliberated and delivered their judgments. We are pleased with the outcome and confident in our position in the remaining litigation with NXP.
Impinj is committed to free and fair competition and, with our suppliers and partners, to creating and delivering the most advanced RAIN RFID solutions for our enterprise customers. As one of the founders and leaders of the RAIN industry, Impinj will continue innovating to advance our market.
We reiterate our unwavering support for global, royalty-free standards. In accordance with the GS1® IP policy, we will continue to provide reciprocal, royalty-free access to our intellectual property necessary to practice the GS1® Gen2 protocol. None of the patent claims included in this litigation are necessary to practice Gen2. We do not believe this litigation outcome will materially impact ongoing or new RAIN RFID programs. We do believe that upholding intellectual property rights will encourage more RAIN RFID providers to innovate in the future.
At Impinj, our principles guide everything we do. We act with integrity and stand up for what is right. We believe these jury verdicts validate that commitment.
Chris Diorio
CEO Impinj, Inc
Update: See July 17, 2023 press release.
- Article tagged as:
Monday, November 13, 2023
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Diorio
Chief Executive Officer, Vice Chair, & Co-Founder
Chris Diorio is the CEO, vice chair, and co-founder at Impinj and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. He spearheaded the development of the RAIN RFID radio standard and cofounded the RAIN Alliance.
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