ams, a manufacturer of high performance sensor and analog solutions, announces that the company has won a last-instance verdict against Melexis N.V. / SA (Belgium) in the patent validity lawsuit launched by Melexis with respect to the European Patent EP 0 916 074 B1 covering magnetic field position sensor products.

The German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) in Karlsruhe (Germany) recently issued a final verdict validating the patent, which is exclusively held by ams, and nullifying Melexis’ claim that the underlying contactless position sensor technology was not patentable. ams had expected to prevail in the last instance of the patentability lawsuit following its appeal of the first-instance decision by the Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) in Munich (Germany).

This lawsuit covers magnetic field position sensor products and European Patent EP 0 916 074 B1 and was brought before the District Court (Landgericht) in Dusseldorf (Germany) by ams. As a consequence, Melexis continues to carry the risk of financial damages for patent infringement being awarded to ams on the basis of the valid infringement verdict.

Bernd Gessner, Executive VP and General Manager Business Unit Automotive at ams, commented, “We are delighted by the Federal Supreme Court decision validating our patent which has been exclusively held by ams since 2003. We are spending significant amounts of time, effort, and money to develop the technologies driving our products and will continue to vigorously defend our intellectual property (IP) against unauthorised use or infringement.”

ams is a developer of high resolution magnetic field sensor solutions.