Cognex seeks patent non-infringement ruling

By Control Engineering Staff March 28, 2006

Natick, MACognex Corp . is seeking a declaration of invalidity, unenforceability, and non-infringement of a 2-D symbology patent. The machine vision systems supplier served the complaint against Acacia Research Corp . and Veritec Inc . over a patent that is claimed to cover a system for reading 2-D symbology.

Cognex asserts that neither it nor any users of Cognex products has infringed the patent. Although no action has been taken against Cognex, the company is making the move to protect its customers who have received demand letters. Cognex said it believes the non-infringement ruling is needed to protect customers from unfounded infringement assertions. The declaration would enable Cognex customers to buy and use the company’s products without the threat of a lawsuit from Acacia/Veritec on this patent and without having to pay a licensing fee to them.

“Cognex firmly believes in the right of inventors and patent holders to seek licensing fees for legitimate, patented technology,” said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex chairman and CEO, “but, we strongly object when questionable patents are used to extort payments from companies that do not have the expertise to challenge the patents, or who, for business reasons, decide to submit to licensing demands rather than to undertake costly legal challenges.”

Shillman noted that Cognex will continue to challenge any patent that interferes with the legitimate right of customers to use Cognex products.

—Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com
jkatzel@reedbusiness.com


Related Resources