Chip Maker Gets $35 Million Judgment

Neoflexycurrent writes "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a $35 million judgment against Clear Logic for violation of the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984. The court concluded that the jury properly rejected Clear Logic's argument that it had legitimately reverse engineered Plaintiff Altera Corporation's mask work design to create cheaper application-specific integrated circuits."

Comments

Non-Protectible

[Krast0r]

"The trial court's instructions initially defined "legitimate reverse engineering" to allow copying and analyzing only "non-protectible concepts or techniques" embodied in a mask work." It would seem that nothing these days is "non-protectible" if RIAA, MPPA or SCO have anything to say about it.

Which Chips?

[Cyclotron_Boy]

Altera makes some OK FPGAs, custom ASICs, and PAL-type chips, but I wonder which chips specifically they are talking about. Reverse-engineering a custom ASIC seems quite suspect indeed...

Imagine being on the Jury

[Se7enLC]

Imagine being on the jury for this case.

From the article:

Clear Logic appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the trial court improperly instructed the jury regarding the affirmative defense of legitimate reverse engineering, which is provided for under the SCPA. The court affirmed, however, holding that certain misstatements of the law in the jury instructions were harmless error. The trial court's instructions initially defined "legitimate reverse engineering" to allow copying and analyzing only "non-protectible concepts or techniques" embodied in a mask work. This was an incorrect statement of the law, but the court concluded that further instructions adequately provided correction. The later instructions explained that "it is permissible [under the SCPA] to reproduce 'a registered mask work' as a step in the process of creating an original chip, so long as the purpose of reproducing the chip is appropriate."

As an electrical engineer, I'm having a hard time fully following all the legalese on this - imagine having to learn what reverse-engineering is, what an FPGA is, and the entire design process while on the jury?

I bet they just sat back in their little deliberation box:

I dunno, they look guity to you, Jeb?

Re:Imagine being on the Jury

[mark_hill97]

Indeed that would be hard. In my opinion what they should have done was get electrical engineers from non-competetive firms and had them fufil the duty of the jury. It seems to me this would be a much better interpretation of a jury of your peers.

Re:Imagine being on the Jury

[DoctorHibbert]

I've served as an expert witness in a patent case, one company was suing another for a patent violation. The patent was ridiculous, the concepts patented had already been around commerically for over 10 years at the time they filed their patent. Any programmer would have understood the issues once explained. However, the jury is just about high school education levels. Many don't even own a computer. Good luck getting them to understand.

Indeed, in the end, its not who's right, it's whose most credible to the jury. And usually that's the side that's most likable. The actual facts don't really matter.

The only post worse than one from a Karma whore

[Golias]

The only post worse than one from a Karma whore is one that calls for somebody to be modded down because you don't like their politics.

Maybe the guy really is a myopic jackass for getting his panties in a twist over a very obscure and complex ruling from a court he doesn't like... maybe not. I dunno. Reverse engineering laws are complex, and I admit that, not being an IP lawyer, I barely grasp them.

How about arguing against his point rather than making a personal attack and calling for him to be silenced (by begging mods to crank his post down to -1 where almost nobody will see it)?

Why do you hate Free Speech?

Seriously. Why? There's no room for debate on the point that you do, as you are trying to censor rather than debate, so the only question is, why do you hate Free Speech?

Re:The only post worse than one from a Karma whore

[Golias]

i dont think the OP or the AC that responded are really contributing anything to the discussion.

The OP points out that the particular court which ruled on this case is requently overturned. If nothing else, he called attention to the fact that the 9th Circuit is perceived by some as somewhat controversial. If we are going to discuss their ruling, that might be worth talking about.

since you dont want anyone censored, do you read /. at -1? if not, why?

The purpose of moderation is two-fold: The first (and more important) purpose is to elevate the visibility of noteworthy comments. Some people like to read at a high threshold to save time. They will only see posts which were seen by at least a few people as particularily worthy of consideration.

The other is allow people to filter out crapflooders, goatse.cx trolls, and other folks who are not really posting to express an idea or participate in a conversation, but simply ruin the experience of reading the forum for everybody else. The moderation guidelines take great pains to urge people to use negative moderation points extremely sparingly.

Modding down somebody simply because you disagree with them, don't like them, or consider their views "dangerous" is not what moderation is supposed to be for. Some people choose to do exactly that with their mod points, but that's a shame.

The way to counter bad ideas is to confront them with good ones, not shout them down.

Yeah, yeah... insert oblig. "you must be new here" joke.

Re:Altera Mask Set

[phriedom]

So to extend the metaphor, did they A)figure out what the notes were and replay them or B) sample the original.

If it is as dougxray asserts above and they never touched or saw an Altera mask, then it is A and I have to reverse my opinion. Setting the music metaphor aside, if they figured out what the mask has to look like given the verilog code as an in and the resulting data as an out, then that sounds like a clean reverse-engineering. And making a derivative customization of your own workalike mask using the verilog input is just plain clever.

Re:This is news about a lawsuit.

[Mr. Underbridge]

It's the precedent. It's that using one company's format and such to spec out business for another company can be considered illegal. The particular companies themeslves aren't interesting.

Seriously, outside of the court cases, who the hell ever heard of Roe (well, the actual person anyway) of Roe v Wade fame, or Brown of Brown v. Board of Education.