SETTLEMENT
AGREEMENT
THIS SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
(“Settlement Agreement’’) is made as of this 3rd
day of October, 2005 (the “Effective Date”), by and
between MKS Instruments, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation with its
principal place of business in Wilmington, Massachusetts and
Applied Science and Technology, Inc., a Delaware corporation with
its principal place of business in Wilmington, Massachusetts, on
the one hand, and Advanced Energy Industries, Inc., a Delaware
corporation with its principal place of business in Fort Collins,
Colorado, on the other hand.
WHEREAS, MKS is the owner of U.S.
Patent No. 6,150,628, U.S. Patent No. 6,388,226, U.S.
Patent No. 6,486,431, U.S. Patent No. 6,552,296, and U.S.
Patent No. 6,559,408 (collectively the
“Patents-in-Suit”);
WHEREAS, on July 23, 2004, a
jury in the United States District Court for the District of
Delaware (the “Court”) returned a verdict in MKS
Instruments, Inc. and Applied Science and Technology, Inc. v.
Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. , Civil Action No. 03-469
(JJF), that Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.’s Xstream brand
products, and the methods embodied therein, infringe claims of the
‘628 patent, the ‘226 patent and the ‘296 patent;
and
WHEREAS, the parties desire to
resolve all aspects of the present dispute without the further time
and expense of litigation or other legal action;
NOW, THEREFORE, for good and valuable
consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of
which is hereby acknowledged, MKS and Advanced Energy agree as
follows:
1. DEFINITIONS
1.1 “Advanced Energy”
shall mean Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. and its wholly owned
subsidiaries.
1.2 “Claims” shall
mean:
(a) any and all claims,
counterclaims, third-party claims, contribution claims, indemnity
claims, demands, actions, causes of action, and all other claims of
every kind and nature in law, equity, arbitration, or other forum,
whether arising under state, federal, international or other law,
which were asserted in or which arise from the same transactions or
occurrences as those claims which were asserted in the Patent
Litigations (as defined in Section 1.8); and
(b) any and all other claims
directed to any Toroidal Plasma Generator Product made, used, sold,
offered for sale, had made or imported by either MKS or Advanced
Energy anywhere in the world, including any claim of infringement
of U.S. Patent No. 6,046,546,
whether such claims described in subparagraphs (a) and
(b) of this Section were absolute or contingent, direct or
indirect, known or unknown. The term “Claims” shall
include only claims existing as of the Effective Date of this
Settlement Agreement.
1.3 “Foreign Toroidal Plasma
Generator Patents” shall mean any and all foreign
counterparts to any of the U.S. Toroidal Plasma Generator Patents
(as defined in Section 1.12 that contain a claim that is
coextensive with a claim of the U.S. Toroidal Plasma Generator
Patents, whether a presently existing patent, or later issued from
a patent application that is presently pending.
1.4 “License Period”
shall mean the period from the Effective Date of this Settlement
Agreement to the first anniversary of the Effective Date .
1.5 “Licensed Products”
shall mean the only following Rapid products, referred to here by
name and model number, and any Rapid products that merely represent
insubstantial changes from the following Rapid products:
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Rapid-F(AE part nos. 3151801-001, -002, -003,
-004)
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Rapid-FE/“Evolution”(AE part nos.
3151805-001, -002, -003, -004)
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Rapid-O(AE part nos. 3151802-001, -002)
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Rapid-OE(AE part nos. 3151802-003, -004)
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“MKS” shall mean MKS Instruments,
Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries
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(including, without limitation, Applied Science and Technology,
Inc.)
1.7 “Net Sales” shall
mean Advanced Energy’s invoice amount for each Licensed
Product provided (i.e., sold, leased, rented or otherwise
transferred) to another Person less the sum of the following:
1.7.1 sales, tariff duties and/or
use taxes directly imposed and with reference to particular
sales;
1.7.2 outbound transportation
prepaid or allowed; and
1.7.3 returns, rebates, credits and
discounts actually granted as a result of the Advanced
Energy’ customers purchasing Licensed Products, but only to
the extent the amounts or percentages are customary in the
trade.
1.8 The “Patent
Litigations” shall mean:
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(a)
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MKS Instruments, Inc. and Applied Science
and Technology, Inc. v. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. ,
Civil Action No. 03-469 (JJF) (D. Del.);
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(b)
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Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. v. MKS
Instruments, Inc. , Civil Action No. 04-014 (JJF) (D.
Del.);
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(c)
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Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. v. MKS
Instruments, Inc. , Civil Action No. 04-848-JJF (D.
Del.);
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(d)
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MKS Instruments, Inc. and Applied Science
and Technology, Inc. v. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. ,
Civil Action No. 00-1004 (JJF) (D. Del.);
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(e)
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Applied Science and Technology v. Advanced
Energy Industries GmbH , Docket No. 7 O 385/04 (District
Court of Manheim, Germany); and
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(f)
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Advanced Energy Industries GmbH v. Applied
Science and Technology , Federal Patent Court, Germany, filed
October 21, 2004 (the “nullity action”).
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1.9 “Person” shall mean
an individual, corporation, partnership, association, trust,
enterprise or other entity or organization, including a government
or political subdivision or an agency or instrumentality
thereof.
1.10 “Subject Patents”
shall mean the U.S. Toroidal Plasma Generator Patents (as defined
in Section 1.12) and the Foreign Toroidal Plasma Generator
Patents (as defined in Section 1.3).
1.11 “Toroidal Plasma Generator
Product” shall mean any product that generates a toroidal
plasma in a plasma body (which may or may not be a toroidal plasma
body) using an AC power supply (which may or may not be an AC
switching power supply and may or may not use an impedance matching
network) and that has a transformer for inducing an electric field
within the plasma body, the toroidal plasma completing a secondary
circuit of the transformer. Toroidal Plasma Generator Products
shall include, without limitation, Advanced Energy’s Rapid
FE, Rapid OE and Xstream products, MKS Instruments’ Astron
and Revolution products, and any derivatives, modifications,
enhancements, changes or improvements from or to any of Advanced
Energy’s Rapid and Xstream products and MKS
Instruments’ Astron and Revolution products.
1.12 “U.S. Toroidal Plasma
Generator Patents” shall mean U.S. Patent No. 6,150,628
(the ‘628 patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,388,226 (the
‘226 patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,486,431 (the ‘431
patent), U.S. Patent No. 6,552,296 (the ‘296 patent),
and U.S. Patent No. 6,559,408 (the ‘408 patent), and any
continuations, continuations-in-part, divisionals, reexaminations,
reissues, and extensions thereof, whether presently existing
patents, or later issued from patent applications that are
presently pending.
2.0 PAYMENT
Within one business day of the
Effective Date, Advanced Energy shall pay to MKS an amount in cash,
by wire transfer of immediately available funds, equal to Three
Million Dollars (U.S.) ($ 3,000,000).
3.0 RESTRICTED ACTIVITIES
3.1 Advanced Energy agrees that it
shall not make, use, sell, rent, lease, offer to sell, have made
and/or import any Toroidal Plasma Generator Product in the United
States for the entire time period extending from the Effective Date
until the date that the last of the U.S. Toroidal Plasma Generator
Patents expires, or, in the case of a pending patent application,
is abandoned.
3.2 Advanced Energy agrees that it
shall not make, use, sell, rent, lease, offer to sell, have made
and/or import any Toroidal Plasma Generator Product into any
country in which a Foreign Toroidal Plasma Generator Patent exists
for the entire time period from the Effective Date until the date
that the last of the Foreign Toroidal Plasma Generator Patents in
that country expires.
3.3 Advanced Energy shall withdraw
all Toroidal Plasma Generator Products from the market in any and
all countries in which at least one Subject Patent is effective.
Advanced Energy shall not reintroduce any Toroidal Plasma Generator
Product into the market of any such country until all of the
Subject Patents are effective in that country have expired.
Advanced Energy shall be permitted to honor its warranty
obligations with respect to Toroidal Plasma Generator Products sold
prior to the Effective Date of this Agreement during the applicable
warranty periods, which shall in any event not exceed a period of
15 months from the Effective Date of this Agreement.
3.4 The License Agreement between MKS
and Advanced Energy dated August 26, 2002 (the “2002
License Agreement”) is hereby terminated as of the Effective
Date, except that Sections 5.2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.3-10.6 and 11
of the 2002 License Agreement shall survive the termination.
3.5 Notwithstanding the provisions of
this Section 3, MKS hereby grants to Advanced Energy, for the
duration of the License Period, a non-transferable, non-exclusive,
royalty-bearing, license under the Subject Patents, to make, have
made, use, sell, rent, lease, offer to sell, and to import Licensed
Products solely to Applied Materials, Inc.
(“AMAT”).
3.6 The license granted pursuant to
this Settlement Agreement does not (a) include the right to
grant sublicenses; (b) extend to any Person other than to
AMAT, (c) include the right to make, use, sell, offer for
sale, rent, lease and import any Licensed Product for the purpose
of being installed, used or operated on or in combination with any
MKS product, and (d) extend to any product designed by another
Person or designed by Advanced Energy for another Person and
manufactured, sold, leased, licensed or otherwise transferred from
Advanced Energy to that Person for sale under a mark not owned by
Advanced Energy. The foregoing is not intended to exclude Advanced
Energy’s sale of Toroidal Plasma Generator Products acquired
from another Person so long as such products are Licensed Products
that have been designed, developed and manufactured by or for
Advanced Energy and sold by Advanced Energy to AMAT under a
trademark owned by Advanced Energy. The license granted under
Sections 3.5 and 3.6 of this Settlement Agreement shall
terminate at the end of the License Period.
3.7 Advanced Energy shall cause all
Licensed Products made, used or sold in the
United States to be marked in legible print with a legend that
includes the United States patent numbers of the Subject Patent(s)
on each Licensed Product. Advanced Energy may also mark, at its
discretion, catalogs and price pages. To the extent that the
inclusion of such marking is impractical for any Licensed Product,
Advanced Energy shall mark in a manner acceptable to MKS. The
legend shall take the following form: “Licensed under U.S.
Patent No(s). [list applicable patents]”. To demonstrate
compliance with its marking obligations, Advanced Energy shall
provide MKS with sample data plates, packaging materials and pages
of applicable product manuals for each Licensed Product either in
advance of selling such Licensed Product or within sixty
(60) days of the Effective Date of this Settlement Agreement,
whichever comes later.
3.8 In consideration of the license
granted herein from MKS to Advanced Energy,
Advanced Energy shall pay MKS royalties on Licensed Products in
the amounts and manner hereinafter provided to the end of the
License Period: royalties in an amount equal to fifteen (15%) of
Net Sales of each Licensed Product provided to AMAT on or after the
Effective Date.
3.9 On the dates specified in
Section 3.11 below for the submission of royalty reports and
royalty report summaries by Advanced Energy, Advanced Energy shall,
irrespective of its own business and accounting methods, pay to MKS
the royalties payable for such quarterly period as shown on the
royalty report. Each royalty report shall be sent to an independent
accounting firm selected and hired by MKS (currently
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP) together with a photocopy of the
payment. Each such royalty report shall be maintained confidential
and not disclosed to MKS. However, at the request of legal counsel
for MKS, the independent firm shall provide (on an attorneys’
eyes only basis) the quantity of Licensed Products sold for each
royalty rate listed in the royalty report. The payment In United
States dollars for the royalties due, shall be sent to MKS at the
address specified in Section 5.11, or at such other address as
MKS shall, from time-to-time, specify to Advanced Energy by written
notice. If any currency conversion shall be required in c