LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES [Text Block]

LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AND CONTINGENCIES:

From time to time in the ordinary course of business, the Company becomes involved in lawsuits, or customers and distributors may make claims against the Company. In accordance with ASC 450-10, Contingencies, the Company makes a provision for a liability when it is both probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated.

On October 4, 2019, the Company entered into a binding term sheet (the “Term Sheet”) with ON Semiconductor Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc., Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, Fairchild (Taiwan) Corporation, and Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC (collectively, “ON”) pursuant to which the parties agreed to end all outstanding legal and administrative disputes. Pursuant to the Term Sheet, ON agreed to pay the Company $175.0 million in cash. In addition, each party agreed to release the other party from any claims to damages or monetary relief for certain alleged acts of patent infringement across the various patent infringement litigations, occurring on or before June 30, 2020, and not to file any additional action for legal or equitable relief prior to June 30, 2023 (although following that date a party may file a legal action for alleged patent infringement occurring after June 30, 2020). Neither party granted any licenses to the other. On October 19, 2019, the parties memorialized the terms of the Term Sheet in a definitive agreement (the “Definitive Agreement”). On October 22, 2019, the Company received ON’s payment of $175.0 million. Subject to the Definitive Agreement, the Company and ON have dismissed, withdrawn, and/or terminated all legal proceedings between the parties. The Company recorded a net $169.0 million favorable litigation settlement within operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2019 in the consolidated statement of income.

On April 1, 2016, Opticurrent, LLC filed a complaint against the Company in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In its complaint, Opticurrent alleges that the Company has infringed and is infringing one patent pertaining to transistor switch devices. The Company filed a motion to transfer the case to California, which the Court granted, and the case was assigned to a new judge in San Francisco following the transfer. On December 21, 2018, the Court granted the Company’s challenge to Opticurrent’s damages expert but denied the Company’s motion for summary judgment. Following a trial in February 2019, a jury issued a finding of direct infringement by the Company but found that the Company did not induce infringement, and awarded Opticurrent damages of $6.7 million. The Company challenged those findings in post-trial proceedings, and the Court granted one of the Company’s post-trial motions, reducing the damages award to $1.2 million. The Company believes it has strong defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against Opticurrent’s claims through appeals, which are currently under way, with briefing completed and oral argument to follow in the coming months.

On June 19, 2019, Opticurrent, LLC filed a follow-on lawsuit accusing more of the Company’s products of infringing the same claim of the same patent asserted in the parties’ prior litigation, as described above. The Company believes it has strong defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against Opticurrent’s claims, with appeals to follow if necessary.

On January 6, 2020, the Company filed a complaint against CogniPower LLC for infringement of two of the Company’s patents and seeking a declaration of non-infringement with respect to three patents that CogniPower had charged the Company’s customers with infringing. The case is in its preliminary stages, and no schedule has been set for the case at this time, but the Company believes it has strong claims and defenses, and intends to vigorously defend itself against CogniPower’s infringement claims, with appeals to follow if necessary.

The Company is unable to predict the outcome of legal proceedings with certainty, and there can be no assurance that Power Integrations will prevail in the above-mentioned unsettled litigations. These litigations, whether or not determined in Power Integrations’ favor or settled, will be costly and will divert the efforts and attention of the Company’s management and technical personnel from normal business operations, potentially causing a material adverse effect on the business, financial condition and operating results. Currently, the Company is not able to estimate a loss or a range of loss for the ongoing litigation disclosed above, however adverse determinations in litigation could result in monetary losses, the loss of proprietary rights, subject the Company to significant liabilities, require Power Integrations to seek licenses from third parties or prevent the Company from licensing the technology, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s business, financial condition and operating results.