IQE plc: Settlement of Legal Dispute

IQE plc

Cardiff, UK

11 February 2021

Settlement of Legal Dispute

IQE plc (AIM:  IQE, "IQE" or the "Group"), the leading supplier of advanced wafer products and material solutions to the global semiconductor industry, today provides an update regarding an ongoing, multifaceted intellectual property legal dispute.

The dispute has been referenced previously in IQE’s 2018 and 2019 Annual Reports, where the associated legal costs were listed as exceptional costs.  

An arbitration hearing relating to this matter was held in September 2019 and the Tribunal’s Final Award was delivered in January 2020. The Tribunal’s award was entirely in IQE’s favour.  Since then, the parties have been engaged in litigation in U.S. federal court regarding the effect of the Tribunal’s decision on cases that had been brought against IQE and IQE employees in that court.

The parties have settled the claims out of court and IQE has now received a full and final settlement payment of US$2.5m.

Dr Drew Nelson, OBE, Chief Executive Officer of IQE said:

“I am very pleased that this matter is now fully resolved. IQE has developed unparalleled materials expertise to meet global demand for advanced semiconductor wafer products, and this is underpinned by our comprehensive intellectual property portfolio which we are prepared to rigorously defend.”

Contacts:

IQE plc
[phone]
Drew Nelson
Tim Pullen
Amy Barlow
           
Peel Hunt LLP (Nomad and Joint Broker)
[phone]
Edward Knight
Paul Gillam
Nick Prowting
           
Citigroup Global Markets Limited (Joint Broker)
[phone]
Christopher Wren
Peter Catterall

Headland Consultancy (Financial PR)
+ 44 (0) 20 38054822
Andy Rivett-Carnac: [phone]
Chloe Francklin: [phone]

ABOUT IQE

http://iqep.com

IQE is the leading global supplier of advanced compound semiconductor wafers and materials solutions that enable a diverse range of applications across:

• handset devices

• global telecoms infrastructure
• connected devices
• 3D sensing

As a scaled global epitaxy wafer manufacturer, IQE is uniquely positioned in this market which has high barriers to entry. IQE supplies the whole market and is agnostic to the winners and losers at chip and OEM level. By leveraging the Group’s intellectual property portfolio including know-how and patents, it produces epitaxy wafers of superior quality, yield and unit economics.

IQE is headquartered in Cardiff UK, with c. 650 employees across nine manufacturing locations in the UK, US, Taiwan and Singapore, and is listed on the AIM Stock Exchange in London.