DisplayPort license agreed
Molex and Foxconn Electronics have settled a US dispute
regarding the scope of a DisplayPort Standard license agreement.
Neither has admitted any wrongdoing. However Foxconn has
been granted a separate, worldwide, royalty-bearing license giving it
the right to sell non-standard connectors using the DisplayPort mating
interface, and having a through-hole mounting interface.
In case you've been living in a cave for the past few years, DisplayPort is a standard for a digital audio/video
interconnect between a computer and a display monitor. The US court case started when Foxconn claimed that Molex
granted it a license to patents necessary to implement DisplayPort.
The licensed technology covered surface mount technology and
through-hole mounting technology. These are different methods for mounting
electronic circuits.
Foxconn sued Molex in 2008, claiming that the outfit had
sent letters and made oral statements to Foxconn's customers and
prospective customers, asserting that Foxconn was acting outside the
scope of the license and was infringing Molex's patents.