Rockwell sues Spectra-Physics over IP
A little more than a few months after it was created, Rockwell Technologies LLC (Thousand Oaks, CA) sued Spectra-Physics Lasers Inc. (Mountain View, CA) and its Opto Power subsidiary (Tucson, AZ) for allegedly infringing a patent for the manufacture of a film used in semiconductor applications. In papers filed about a month ago in the US District Court in Delaware, Rockwell Technologies LLC sought unspecified but triple damages "as a result of defendants' willful infringement," according to Reuters.
Rockwell created Rockwell Technologies LLC in May to promote the parent company's "intellectual capital to the commercial marketplace." According to a Rockwell statement. "Rockwell's continuing investment in research and development places it in a premier group of technology-driven companies," remarked James O'Shaughnessy, Rockwell vice president and chief intellectual property counsel at the time the intellectual property (IP) unit was created.
Spectra-Physics chairman, president, and CEO Patrick Edsell had little to say when questioned about the lawsuit, other than to question the substantiveness of the patent-infringement allegation. He also stated that the Rockwell patent in question (concerning an organo-metallic process used to produce films used in semiconductors on a single crystal substrate) had expired several months before the creation of the Rockwell IP unit and the filing of the suit. —Hassaun Jones-Bey, Senior Editor