Lemelson. Plaintiff (Lemelson an alleged patent holder) brought an action against a class of users (of which Ethan Xxxxx is included) of bar code technology. Plaintiff also brought companion case against bar code manufacturers/vendors alleging sole right to all bar code technology and seeking royalty for use. Action against Ethan Xxxxx and other users is on hold, pending final resolution of action against manufacturers/vendors of bar code systems.
Lemelson. In 1989, Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx (and his Licensee, Technivision Corporation), began seeking licenses from manufacturers for his "machine vision" patents, including Texas Instruments ("TI"), a customer of the Company. The Company was notified by TI that Xx. Xxxxxxxx was asserting patent rights with respect to "machine vision". TI brought the issue to the attention of the Company to protect TI's rights of indemnification under TI's purchase agreement with the Company. In response thereto, the Company obtained an opinion from outside patent counsel that the Lemelson patents were invalid and unenforceable. Since that time, the Company was also contacted by Mictron and Motorola, two other customers of the Company, which received similar licensing offers from Xx. Xxxxxxxx. Ford Motor Company was also contacted by Lemelson and, in response thereto, Ford Motor Company filed a declaratory judgement action in Reno, Nevada. In June of 1995, the Court in Reno held that the Lemelson machine patents were unenforceable because of Lemelson's undue delay in filing claims in his pending applications. Xxxxxxx Reissue --------------- On August 27, 1991, Therma-Wave obtained U.S. Patent No. 5,042,951, relating to a high resolution ellipsometric apparatus. This patent covers a concept which has not yet been incorporated in any of the devices of the Company. The patented concept may be incorporated in a device in the future. On November 24, 1992, U.S. Patent No. 5,166,752, was issued to Xxxxxxx Research Corporation. This patent claims subject matter similar to that disclosed in Therma-Wave's '951 patent. The filing date of the Xxxxxxx patent was four months after the filing date of the Therma-Wave '951 patent. In order to obtain the claims in the Xxxxxxx patent, Therma-Wave filed a reissue patent application on August 16, 1993. This reissue patent application "copied" the claims from the Xxxxxxx patent. The reissue application also included a request to provoke an interference with the Xxxxxxx patent. In a telephone conference with the Patent Examiner in 1995, the Examiner indicated that the Company's reissue application was acceptable and that it had been passed on to the Board of Patent Interferences.
Lemelson. Effective as of the Closing, the Vendor hereby grants the Purchaser a non-exclusive, fully paid, royalty-free sublicense pursuant to and on the terms of that certain License Agreement dated as of September 10, 2001 (the “Lemelson License”) between the Vendor and the Lemelson Medical, Educational and Research Foundation, a limited partnership (together with its successors and assigns, “Lemelson”), until such time as the Purchaser shall obtain from Lemelson a stand-alone license with respect to the BRP Business Segment, all as contemplated by Section 11 of the Lemelson License. The Purchaser shall use Commercially Reasonable Efforts to obtain such stand-alone license.
Lemelson. Spiegel is one of multiple defendants in a patent infringement suit regarding Lemelson's barcode, machine vision and related patents. The litigation has been stayed pending final disposition of the declaratory judgment action brought by the Bar Code Manufacturers. Following a favorable decision in the District Court in favor of the Bar Code Manufacturers, Lemelson appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit the findings of non-infringement and invalidity. The matter is fully briefed before the Court of Appeals. Oral Argument was conducted on June 5, 2005. This matter is now awaiting a decision. Eddie Bauer participates in periodic telephone conferences that focus xx xhx xxxtus of this litigation.
