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U.S. court rules in favor of Dutch ASML in IP theft case against Xtal
(Reuters) - Dutch chip equipment maker ASML Holding NV said on Saturday a U.S. court had issued its final judgment in favor of ASML in an intellectual property theft case against U.S. software maker Xtal.
The Santa Clara County Superior Court in California awarded ASML $845 million along with an injunction, ASML said.
The Netherlands-based company said the judgment would be uncollectible as Xtal is in bankruptcy, but under a settlement arrangement ASML will end up owning most or all of Xtal’s intellectual property through the bankruptcy process.
As part of the injunction, the court ordered Xtal not to conduct development activities on its software products that ASML says contain the Dutch company’s intellectual property.
ASML said the injunction also bars Xtal from continuing to work in the same field of business as Brion, ASML’s computational lithography product, for a period of time.
In April, ASML disclosed that former employees took company secrets to Xtal, which is funded by entities in South Korea and China and set up to sell a competing product to an existing ASML customer in South Korea.
Reporting by Ishita Chigilli Palli in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones
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