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Commitments and Contingencies
6 Months Ended
Apr. 01, 2016
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
Commitments and Contingencies

12. COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Litigation—From time to time we may be subject to commercial disputes, employment issues, claims by other companies in the industry that we have infringed their intellectual property rights and other similar claims and litigations. Any such claims may lead to future litigation and material damages and defense costs. Other than as set forth below, we were not involved in any material pending legal proceedings during the quarter ended April 1, 2016.

Class Action Suit Against Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. On March 10, 2015, Philip Alvarez, a former employee of Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (“Mindspeed”) filed a putative class action lawsuit against Mindspeed in the Superior Court of California for the County of Orange. On April 24, 2015, Alvarez filed a First Amended Complaint adding our subsidiary M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. as a defendant. The lawsuit alleged, among other things, that Alvarez and certain other employees who designed and manufactured hardware systems for Mindspeed or M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. between March 10, 2011 and the present were misclassified as exempt employees under California law. The lawsuit seeks recovery of alleged unpaid overtime wages, meal and rest period premiums, penalties and attorneys’ fees. We dispute the allegations of the lawsuit. On June 15, 2015, Mindspeed removed the action to the United States District Court for the Central District of California. On July 15, 2015, Plaintiff filed a Motion to Remand, which Motion was denied in an Order dated September 9, 2015. The parties have reached an agreement for the dismissal of all class action allegations and claims in the action, as well as certain other claims against Mindspeed and M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. and Plaintiff filed a Second Amended Complaint effectuating this agreement. Accordingly, the only claims remaining in the action were those of Alvarez on an individual basis. Subsequently, the parties reached a final and confidential resolution of the matter.

 

GaN Lawsuit Against Infineon. On April 26, 2016, we and our wholly-owned subsidiary Nitronex, LLC brought suit against International Rectifier Corporation (“International Rectifier”), Infineon Technologies Americas Corporation, and Infineon Technologies AG (collectively, “Infineon”) in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California, seeking injunctive relief, monetary damages, and specific performance of certain contractual obligations. The suit arises out of agreements relating to GaN patents that were executed several years ago by Nitronex Corporation (acquired by MACOM in 2014) and International Rectifier (acquired by Infineon AG in 2015). We assert claims for breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, declaratory judgement of contractual rights, and declaratory judgment of non-infringement of patents. If successful, the relief sought would, among other remedies, require International Rectifier and Infineon to assign back to MACOM certain GaN-related Nitronex patents that were previously assigned to International Rectifier.

With respect to the above and other legal proceedings, we have not been able to reasonably estimate the amount or range of any possible loss, and accordingly has not accrued or disclosed any related amounts of possible loss in the accompanying consolidated financial statements.