Plaintiffs have no standing to sue
Farnan, J. Defendant’s motions to dismiss for lack of standing are granted without prejudice.
Defendant contends that Fairchild lacks standing to bring this lawsuit in that it is no more than a non-exclusive licensee. Therefore it cannot suffer any legal injury from the infringement of the patent-in-suit. In addition, Fairchild cannot cure this defect by joining Intersil (the patent’s title holder) because Intersil also lacks standing to sue because it explicitly contracted away “the sole and exclusive right, exclusive even as to Intersil, to enforce the patent-in-suit against Power Integrations." Because the right to sue others still resides with Intersil, Fairchild is a bare licensee with only the right to sue a specific entity. The Court dismisses without prejudice because the possibility exists that Fairchild and Intersil may be able to cure the standing defect noted here.
A copy of the full opinion is available here.
