October 20, 2005 – In a twist to a recent story on Synopsys’ claims of patent infringement by Magma, a Santa Clara, CA-based provider of semiconductor design software, Magma has initiated a lawsuit against Synopsys claiming that the infringement case relies on invalid patents and constitutes a violation of US antitrust law. In a company statement, Magma revealed that it “filed an answer to complaint and counterclaims disputing Synopsys’ claims on the basis that the applications Synopsys made to the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) knowingly concealed relevant prior art that described the inventions claimed in the applications.”

The counterclaim to the patent infringement suit also alleges that to deliberately exclude pertinent prior art from an application to the US PTO represents a fraudulent application, and that Synopsys’ Sept. 26 lawsuit against Magma was an attempt to enforce a fraudulently obtained patent and violates Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which states that “Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony.”