ASML, Carl Zeiss and Nikon end patent battle over lithography and cameras

ASML, Carl Zeiss and Nikon have agreed to suspend all patent litigation in Europe, the US and Japan. A final settlement and an agreement for the use of each other’s patents will follow in February.

Part of the Memorandum of Understanding is a one-off payment of EUR 150 million to Nikon by ASML and Carl Zeiss. Nikon and ASML also mutually agree to pay each other 0.8 percent of sales of immersion lithography systems in royalties for ten years. In February, the companies expect to reach a final settlement, which should also include patent claims related to cameras.

The patent battle began in 2017, when Nikon sued ASML and Zeiss. The Japanese company claimed that ASML used technology that Nikon developed in 2000 and for which it has patents. ASML and Nikon reached an agreement in 2004 to license use of the technology, but it expired in 2009 and the agreement was also not to sue each other until 2015.

Negotiations on new license agreements came to nothing, according to Nikon, after which there was no other way than to go to court, according to the company. According to ASML, there have been no serious negotiations to extend the license agreement. ASML and Zeiss then defended themselves with counterclaims, which can sometimes be a tactic to enforce favorable terms in a re-settlement. What helped ASML was a court ruling in The Hague that a patent relied on by Nikon was null and void and therefore ASML could not infringe it. No final judgments had yet been made in cases for the other patent claims, such as those in Japan and the US, which included proceedings before the US International Trade Commission.