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https://www.advantest.com/en/news/2023/20230804.html


TOKYO, Japan - August 4, 2023 - Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857), through its subsidiaries Advantest America, Inc. and Advantest Test Solutions, Inc. has secured a settlement in an arbitration against AEM Holdings Ltd., Lattice Innovation, Inc., and Samer Kabbani (collectively, " AEM" ). Among other terms of the settlement, AEM must pay $20 million to Advantest and immediately terminate any exclusivity provisions that previously blocked Advantest from working directly with a sub-supplier.
Furthermore, Advantest, which has a robust and growing IP portfolio of patents and trade secrets covering its thermal control, active thermal interposer, and wafer active thermal interposer technology, did not license any of its IP to AEM as part of the settlement and remains free to assert any claims for IP infringement against AEM in the future.
Advantest filed the arbitration alleging that Kabbani, while working full-time as an Advantest Test Solutions, Inc. Vice President, was also serving as the CEO, board member, and a principal owner of a side business, Lattice inserted Lattice into Advantest' s supply chain without disclosing his active involvement in Lattice and, further, arranged to have a sub-supplier locked into an exclusivity contract with Lattice, which allowed Lattice to gatekeep Advantest' s access to that sub-supplier. AEM then hired Kabbani as its Chief Technology Officer and purchased Lattice. Advantest brought claims in the arbitration against Kabbani, AEM, and Lattice.
Advantest filed the arbitration to secure its supply chain, to ensure continuity for its customers, to protect its intellectual property, and to obtain monetary relief for past harms. The arbitration settlement, parts of which will soon be made public in an arbitral award filed in a California court, accomplishes all three goals. In addition to the $20 million payment, the settlement: