Gateway Prevails in HP Patent Appeal

Gateway announced late Thursday that it had won an appeal of a judgment that the company infringed on patents held by HP surrounding parallel port technology. The decision by the International Trade Commission remands the case to an administrative law judge for further proceedings.

At issue was the legacy circuitry involved to run parallel-port printers. The ruling stems from a decision in 2004 by HP to attempt to assert six patents against its rival computer maker. Three of the patent claims were dismissed before trial, and Gateway prevailed at trial on two others.

HP was able to win on the parallel-port patent, which Gateway subsequently appealed. The appeals court found no "literal infringement," according to Gateway.

"We're very pleased that the ITC concurred with our view that the Gateway intellectual property and technology at issue in this case does not infringe HP's patents," Gateway's chief legal and administrative officer Michael Tyler said in a statement.

Gateway also said that it is fighting HP in various intellectual property issues in five courts nationwide. It added that the ITC is currently considering an appeal that would prevent HP from importing Media Center PCs, but did not expand on the matter.

No disruption is expected to shipments of Gateway computers as a result of the litigation, the company said.

HP was not available for comment as of press time.