Cognex Corporation Presented with Special Recognition Award from Automated Imaging Association

Trade Group Honors its Member for Defeating Lemelson Partnership

Ann Arbor, MI – Cognex Corporation, Natick, MA, has been presented a special recognition award from the Automated Imaging Association (AIA) for its recent courtroom victory over the Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation, Limited Partnership. 

In the landmark decision by Chief Judge Philip Pro of the U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, the claims of 14 patents asserted by the Lemelson Partnership were found invalid and unenforceable.

Since the early 1990s, the late Jerome Lemelson and the Lemelson Partnership are estimated to have collected more than $1.5 billion in license fees from companies that use machine vision and bar code reading technology.

‘‘The threat of litigation from the Lemelson Partnership has hung over the machine vision industry like a dark cloud for more than a decade.  Thanks to Cognex, who spent millions of dollars fighting this case, this cloud is now gone,’‘ said Jeffrey A. Burnstein, Executive Director of AIA.

William M. Silver, Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder of Cognex, accepted the award on behalf of Cognex at the annual AIA Business Conference in Orlando, FL on February 5, 2004.  Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Chairman and CEO of Cognex was also in attendance.

‘‘This ruling is truly a cause for celebration, for Cognex and for every company around the world that makes, sells, or uses machine vision systems or bar code readers,’‘ said Dr. Shillman.  ‘‘It is also a victory for consumers everywhere, because every one of us has paid a hidden tax to Lemelson each and every time we made a purchase of virtually any item that was manufactured since the start of Lemelson’s licensing onslaught.’‘

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‘‘We are very pleased to receive this recognition from the members of the AIA.  We thank the association for providing the historical data that helped us illustrate to the court the achievements of the true pioneers of our industry to the court. We additionally thank them for their dedication to establishing a community of machine vision producers and users worldwide,’‘ said Mr. Silver.

Founded in 1984, AIA represents more than 200 machine vision suppliers, system integrators, end users, research groups and consulting firms.  The association is best known for its trade shows and conferences, such as The Vision Show East (next slated for May 4-6 in Boston), the annual AIA Business Conference, the annual Machine Vision Market Study, and Machine Vision Online, the world’s leading resource for machine vision information on the Internet.

For more information about AIA and the machine vision industry, visit www.machinevisiononline.org or contact AIA Headquarters at 734/994-6088.