Aptix, Mentor appeal dismissal of Quickturn case

Aptix, Mentor appeal dismissal of Quickturn case
By Michael Santarini, EE Times
June 24, 2000 (9:42 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000624S0001

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Aptix Corp. and Mentor Graphics Corp. have both filed post-hearing briefs that question a judge's decision to dismiss their patent-infringement suit against Quickturn, a division of Cadence Design Systems Inc.

After reviewing the decision made last week by Judge William Alsup of U.S. District Court, Aptix officials said they plan to appeal the decision and stated that Amr Mohsen, chief executive officer of Aptix, is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Judge Alsup dismissed the case against Quickturn largely based on allegations that Mohsen committed massive fraud in his company's patent-infringement suit against Quickturn (see June 15 story).

Among his allegations, Alsup accused Mohsen of working with his brother Aly Mohsen to fabricate entries in a 1989 engineering diary, create a fraudulent 1988 diary, and stage a break-in of Amr's car to steal the notebook s once forensic testing revealed discrepancies. Judge Alsup dismissed the case against Quickturn based on these allegations.

The Aptix brief denies that Mohsen committed any intentional wrongdoing. Both the Aptix brief and a separate brief filed by Meta, the emulation arm of Mentor Graphics, claim the forensic testing cited by Alsup was inconclusive and that information in the notebooks and in a DayTimer, which Mohsen allegedly forged, was not used "to establish an outcome determinative fact" in the case, and therefore should not have influenced the judge's decision.