SAN JOSE, Calif. -- SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. and the staff of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) have independently filed appeals with the ITC Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) initial ruling this week.
In that stunning ruling, the ALJ said that certain SiRF products infringed upon GPS patents held by Global Locate Inc., a subsidiary of Broadcom Corp. (Irvine, Calif.).
In addition, SiRF has taken measures to reassure its customers of multiple alternatives to address this initial ruling to enable SiRF customers to continue shipping their products into the U.S. market.
"There is no ban on shipment of SiRF's or our customers' products. In fact, the ITC will not even make any final determination until December after they have finished their investigation including reviewing the ITC Staff's appeal and our appeal," said Kanwar Chadha, founder of San Jose-based SiRF, in a statement.
The initial ruling is subject to review by the ITC. SiRF believes that the ALJ's initial decision is incorrect, and the evidence presented during the trial gives SiRF a strong basis for its appeal to the ITC for its final ruling, due to issue in December 2008. The ITC Staff has also independently filed an appeal of the initial ruling.
In addition, there will be a remedies briefing process to the ITC that determines the impact, if any, of a ruling on SiRF and SiRF customers' products, which will occur in due course, according to SiRF. The final ITC ruling is further subject to a sixty-day Presidential review period and can then be appealed to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
