May 2009 - Sound & Communications

NEWSLETTERYORK TELECOM SECURES DEBT AND EQUITY FINANCINGPrivate equity firm Petra Capital Partners (Nashville TN) has invested $6 million in debt and equityfunding in York Telecom Corp. (Eatontown NJ), and PNC Bank, NA (Pittsburgh PA), extended a $12 millionRevolving Line of Credit in senior secured financing to York Telecom and its subsidiaries. Coupledwith a recent $5 million debt and equity transaction from NewSpring Mezzanine (Radnor PA), YorkTelecom has raised $23 million within the past 12 months. York Telecom represents Petra’s fourth investmentfrom its newest fund, Petra Growth Fund II, LP.York provides design, integration and operational managed services for global enterprise visual communicationssystems, with clients including Fortune 100 firms, government agencies, and universitiesand educational institutions. Petra Managing Partner Mike Blackburn, joining York’s Board of Directors,remarked, “The globalization of business is increasingly placing a premium on the ability of companiesto communicate with their employees, customers and partners anytime, anywhere, in a timely and efficientmanner. Video communications is rapidly becoming the medium of choice for the world’s largestenterprises and York Telecom is well positioned to [be an expert] for the design, deployment and ongoingmanagement of these highly complex systems.”CLEARONE FINAL ORDER IN TRADE SECRET CASEThe US District Court of Central Utah in Salt Lake City issued a Memorandum Decision and Order infavor of ClearOne Communications, Inc. (Salt Lake City UT; www.clearone.com), awarding it about $9.7million in joint-and-several and individual judgments against the defendants. The defendants include agroup sometimes termed the “WideBand Defendants,” consisting of WideBand Solutions, Inc. (ReadingMA; www.widebandsolutions.com); WideBand principals Dr. Jun Yang (a former ClearOne employee),Andrew Chiang (previously affiliated with an entity that sold certain assets to ClearOne) and LonnyBowers; and a company owned primarily by Yang, named Versatile DSP, Inc., as well as Biamp Systems(Beaverton OR; www.biamp.com).The Final Order was issued in the case presented to a jury in October and November 2008, bringingclaims for, among other things, theft of ClearOne’s trade secrets. On November 5, 2008, the jury returneda unanimous verdict in favor of ClearOne in the intellectual property case. A permanent injunctionorder prohibiting, among other things, the use of infringing computer code and products by Wide-Band Solutions was issued in federal court on April 9 in favor of ClearOne.According to Biamp, the final judgment and permanent injunction will have no material effect on its operations,current products, services or technologies. The company maintains it had no knowledge of anymisappropriation of the ClearOne code, and will immediately file an appeal on the final judgment. Biampcustomers will not experience any changes in service.SMART FILES PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST NEXTWINDOWSMART Technologies ULC (Calgary, Alberta, Canada; www.smarttech.com) has filed a patent infringementlawsuit against NextWindow Ltd. (Pleasanton CA; www.nextwindow.com) in the US District Courtfor the Northern District of Illinois to enforce SMART’s Digital Vision Touch (DViT) technology patentportfolio. SMART alleges NextWindow has infringed several of SMART’s DViT technology patents, and isseeking an unspecified amount of damages as well as injunctive relief against NextWindow to preventthe importation and sale of allegedly infringing products in the US.Over several years, SMART has been actively filing patent applications and obtaining patents in the USand globally to protect its intellectual property related to touch technologies, including DViT technology,and proprietary aspects of other technologies. These patent applications and issued patents form thebasis for an active IP licensing program at SMART for its technology portfolios.COMPILED BY DAN FERRISI AND DAVID A. SILVERMAN10Sound & Communicationswww.soundandcommunications.com