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Legal Matters | 12 Months Ended
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Mar. 26, 2016
Legal Matters [Abstract] |
Legal Matters | 13. Legal Matters ﻿ From time to time, we are involved in legal proceedings concerning matters arising in connection with the conduct of our business activities. We regularly evaluate the status of legal proceedings in which we are involved to assess whether a loss is probable or there is a reasonable possibility that a loss or additional loss may have been incurred and to determine if accruals are appropriate. We further evaluate each legal proceeding to assess whether an estimate of possible loss or range of loss can be made. ﻿ On June 4, 2012, U.S. Ethernet Innovations, LLC (the “Ethernet Plaintiff”) filed suit against Cirrus Logic and two other defendants in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas. The Ethernet Plaintiff allege d that Cirrus Logic infringed four U.S. patents relating to Ethernet technology. In its complaint, the Ethernet Plaintiff indicated that it sought unspecified monetary damages, including up to treble damages for willful infringement. We answered the complaint on June 29, 2012, denying the allegations of infringement and sought a declaratory judgment that the patents in suit were invalid and not infringed. The parties entered into a settlement agreement on May 30, 2013. In exchange for a full release of claims as it relates to the asserted patent, we paid the Ethernet Plaintiff $0.7 million. This amount is recorded as a separate line item on the Consolidated Statements of Income under the caption “Patent agreement and other.” ﻿ On June 17, 2014, Enterprise Systems Technologies S.a.r.l. (the “Enterprise Plaintiff”) filed suit against Cirrus Logic, Inc. in the U.S. District Court, District of Delaware. The Enterprise Plaintiff alleged that Cirrus Logic indirectly infringed two U.S. patents through the manufacture and sale of digital signal processors, audio codecs, audio processors, and other components included in communications and consumer electronic devices such as smartphones and computers. The Enterprise Plaintiff sought unspecified monetary damages. On July 23, 2014, the Enterprise Plaintiff filed an amended complaint removing allegations associated with one of the two patents. On August 25, 2014, the lawsuit was stayed pending resolution of the proceedings in the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) described below. The suit was concluded on March 6, 2015, when the Enterprise Plaintiff dismissed with prejudice any claims against Cirrus Logic. On July 16, 2014, the Enterprise Plaintiff requested the ITC to investigate the impact of certain products that allegedly infringe the same patent asserted in the District Court of Delaware. The Enterprise Plaintiff was seeking a limited exclusion order against certain Apple, Inc. products that incorporate the Company’s components. The matter was concluded when the ITC terminated its investigation with respect to Cirrus Logic on March 9, 2015, and on March 30, 2015, the ITC made such termination decision final.

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