Finnegan Scores Major PTAB Victory for Innoscience that Rocks the Gallium Nitride (GaN) Power Semiconductor Industry

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2025

WASHINGTON, DC—Finnegan is pleased to announce that firm client Innoscience (Suzhou) Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (Innoscience) has secured another significant victory against industry rival Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (“EPC”), this time obtaining a final written decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”), which finds all challenged claims of EPC’s asserted U.S. Patent No. 8,350,294 (’294 patent) unpatentable. This victory is a significant milestone for Innoscience in the two-year long patent war launched by EPC, and sends a strong signal to the industry that Innoscience is committed to resolutely defend itself against meritless patent assertions.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a new generation of semiconductor. Compared to their silicon counterparts, GaN-based power devices are faster, smaller, cheaper, and more energy efficient, and thus play a critical role in the current Fourth Industrial Revolution led by the energy-thirsty artificial intelligence (AI) technology, electric vehicles (EV), internet of things (IoT), smart grid, etc. Innoscience, a publicly traded company in Hong Kong with R&D and sales facilities across the world, is a leader in the global GaN power device market. 

EPC is a California-based GaN power device company. In May 2023, facing business competition from Innoscience, EPC launched lawsuits against Innoscience at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, alleging infringement of the ’294 patent and three other EPC patents. The California case has since stayed while the ITC case marched through. At the ITC, EPC withdrew its claims as to two of the four patents, and went to trial only on the ’294 patent and a fourth patent (U.S. Patent No. 8,404,508, ’508 patent). Last November, the ITC issued a final determination finding no violation as to the ’508 patent—a huge success for Innoscience.    

The ITC, however, determined that claims 2 and 3 the ’294 patent are valid and infringed, and thus issued remedial orders. Despite these, Innoscience continued to fight against the ’294 patent in an inter partes review (“IPR”) filed at the PTAB. On March 18, 2025, the PTAB issued a Final Written Decision finding that all challenged claims of the ’294 patent (including all those asserted in the ITC litigation) were invalid. Thus, the PTAB’s ruling, once affirmed through appeal, would moot the ITC’s entire ruling against Innoscience. It is also a timely vindication that Innoscience did not infringe any patents of EPC. 

During the IPR, EPC filed a motion to amend to add two new claims. Although the PTAB’s Final Written Decision granted this motion, these two claims are not asserted in the lawsuits against Innoscience and they won’t be issued until all appeals are exhausted.

Innoscience’s latest PTAB win also rocks the GaN power device industry. Innoscience and EPC are both key suppliers of GaN power devices. Their patent disputes have drawn wide attention since the beginning. Through the series of victories at the ITC and PTAB, Innoscience has shown that it is determined to defend its leading position in the fast growing GaN power device market and remains to be a trusted partner of its customers.

Finnegan is pleased that it can play a vital role in ensuring healthy competition in the GaN market, and help the U.S. customers gain access to Innoscience’s affordable and reliable chips. It will continue to stand together with Innoscience against baseless patent claims and seek ultimate resolution of the current legal battle against EPC.

This case is Innoscience (Zhuhai) Technology Company, Ltd. et al v. Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, IPR2023-01381 (PTAB).