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Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a range of products that incorporate sophisticated machine vision technology that gives them the ability to “see.” Cognex products include barcode readers, machine vision sensors, and machine vision systems that are used in factories, warehouses, and distribution centers around the world to guide, gauge, inspect, identify, and assure the quality of items during the manufacturing and distribution process. Cognex is the world’s leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 1 million vision-based products, representing over $4 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company’s founding in 1981. Headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA, Cognex has regional offices and distributors located throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
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Cognex Wins Appeal in Lemelson Lawsuit; Ruling Allows Cognex to Introduce the Doctrine of Prosecution Laches to Bar Enforcement of Lemelson Patents
POSTED 02/04/2002
NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2002--Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, announced today that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled in Cognex's favor in an important appeal related to Cognex's lawsuit against the Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation, Limited Partnership. The appeal ruling, issued on January 24, gives Cognex the right to raise the doctrine of patent prosecution laches as one of its defenses to the Lemelson Partnership's infringement claims.
The doctrine of prosecution laches bars a patentee from enforcing a patent claim when there was an unreasonable delay in seeking the claim from the Patent Office. Cognex is contending that Lemelson's unreasonable delays in the prosecution of certain machine vision patent claims--in many cases more than 30 years after his original 1954 and 1956 applications--constitute laches.
If Cognex is successful in arguing the laches defense when its lawsuit against the Lemelson Partnership goes to trial, the court could hold the vast majority of the Lemelson patent claims unenforceable. The case is expected to go to trial in August of 2002.
'We are very excited by the court's decision,' said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex's President, CEO and Chairman. 'Not only would a successful laches defense help Cognex's case against the Lemelson Partnership, but if the patents are found to be unenforceable, it will also have a significant, favorable impact on hundreds of other companies being sued by Lemelson.'
Cognex filed suit against the Lemelson Partnership in September of 1998, seeking a declaration that various patents that claim to cover machine vision, currently assigned to the Partnership by the late Jerome H. Lemelson, are invalid, unenforceable, and not infringed by either Cognex or by any users of Cognex products.
Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision systems, or computers that can 'see.' Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 150,000 machine vision systems, representing over $1 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. Cognex's Modular Vision Systems Division, headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for automating the manufacture of a wide range of discrete items and for assuring their quality. Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division, headquartered in Alameda, California, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for inspecting the surfaces of products manufactured in a continuous fashion, such as metals, paper, plastics, and nonwovens. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Visit Cognex on-line at http://www.cognex.com.
CONTACT:
Robin Pratt
Corporate Communications
Cognex Corporation
(508) 650-3384