ESI, Cognex settle patent infringement lawsuit

Portland, OR— Electro Scientific Industries Inc. reports that it recently reached a settlement and license agreement with Cognex Corp. that resolves a February 2001 lawsuit filed by Cognex against ESI. The litigation alleged that ESI infringed Cognex’s U.S. Patent No. 5,371,690.

In the settlement agreement, Cognex grants ESI a non-exclusive license to the patent, which covers machine-vision technology, as well as certain covenants not to sue under various other patents related to surface-mount equipment. As a result of the settlement, ESI will record a charge to operations of $1.8 million in the second quarter of its 2005 fiscal year.

‘We’re pleased to have settled this dispute, and we’re moving forward with our focus on providing world-class vision solutions to our customers and the marketplace,’ says Nick Konidaris, ESI’s president and CEO.

Founded in 1944, ESI produces production laser systems that help microelectronics manufacturers enhance electronic-device performance in three key sectors, semiconductors, components and electronic interconnect, by enabling precision fine-tuning of device microfeatures in high-volume manufacturing environments.

Control Engineering Daily News DeskJim Montague, news editorjmontague@reedbusiness.com

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