PoE manufacturers settle patent dispute

PowerDsine has settled its litigation with Phihong and, as part of the settlement, has licensed Phihong to use its US patent relating to midspan PoE products.

PowerDsine has settled its litigation with Phihong USA Corporation and its parent company Phihong Technology Company and, as part of the settlement, has granted Phihong a licence to use its US Patent 6,473,608 in connection with the manufacture and sale of midspan PoE products.

PowerDsine had commenced an action before the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York alleging that certain products produced and/or sold by Phihong infringe PowerDsine's Midspan technology patent.

Following settlement discussions, the two companies reached an amicable settlement which includes a license for Phihong to use PowerDsine's PoE midspan technology.

"We are very pleased to reach an amicable settlement and licensing agreement with Phihong", said Simon Kahn, PowerDsine's Director of Intellectual Property.

"This settlement is part of PowerDsine's intellectual property licensing strategy, which includes partnering with companies that want to take an active role in the Power over Ethernet market".

PowerDsine's US Patent 6,473,608 addresses an Ethernet LAN, in which "power enabled" elements are detected so that current limited power can be distributed safely via spare pairs of the data Ethernet cabling infrastructure to those elements without affecting legacy devices.

The patent covers PoE midspan products that connect to an Ethernet switch in order to PoE-enable an enterprise network.

PowerDsine has been granted similar patents in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

These patents protect the same claims covered by the foregoing US patent.

In addition, PowerDsine has patent applications covering this technology pending in five countries and Europe.

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