Microchip Tech Loses Bid to Cancel Patent on Circuit-Design Tool

Microchip Technology Inc. must face allegations that its MPLAB Code Configurator infringes a patent related to an improved user interface for programming microcontrollers, as a federal judge in Delaware denied its request to cancel the patent.

Microchip “has not shown that the asserted claims are directed to an abstract idea,” Judge Richard G. Andrews wrote in an opinion Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Delaware. He said the Lazer IP LLC patent’s claims “are instead directed to an improved user interface for computer devices allowing for more efficient programming of microcontrollers.”

Lazer is owned by IP ...