Product category:
Optical Transceivers, Transponders and Repeaters
News Release from: Finisar Corp
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 08 April 2005
Finisar files patent infringement
lawsuit
Finisar Corp has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against The DirecTV Group and related entities in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Finisar Corp has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against The DirecTV Group and related entities (DirecTV) in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, located in Beaumont, Texas The suit alleges that DirecTV has engaged in and continues to engage in willful infringement of Finisar's US Patent No 5,404,505 (the 505 patent) directed to an information transmission system
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 13 Nov 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The 505 patent was invented by Finisar's Chief Technology Officer and cofounder, Dr Frank Levinson.
Finisar is seeking monetary damages from DirecTV as well as injunctive relief.
The lawsuit states that Finisar repeatedly contacted DirecTV about its infringement of the 505 patent throughout 2004 and early 2005, indicating its willingness to engage DirecTV in licensing discussions, but Finisar's requests to begin a dialogue on the matter were not successful.
"While we are not a litigious company, we have not been able to make any meaningful progress in resolving this infringement by any other means", said Steve Workman, Finisar's Chief Financial Officer.
"We obviously believe that we have strong grounds for taking this action and that our patent will ultimately be enforced in this case".
Finisar's 505 patent was filed in 1991 and granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1995.
It is directed to a pioneering technology used to provide subscribers with access to the contents of a large database while using a manageable amount of bandwidth.
This technology is useful in a broad range of applications, including in the transmission of electronic programming guides via satellite broadcast.
The law firm Workman Nydegger of Salt Lake City, Utah is representing Finisar.
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