February 1, 2008, Tokyo, Japan--According to an online story on Light Reading, Fujitsu has fired a lawsuit at Tellabs (Naperville, IL) for allegedly infringing on four optics-related patents. Fujitsu, which filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, is seeking unspecified monetary damages and an injunction against Tellabs.
The four patents in question--Nos. 5,526,163; 5,521,737; 5,386,418; and 6,487,686--are all related to optical communications technologies, including intellectual property associated with Sonet, SDH, and dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM).
Fujitsu claims that the Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport System, the 5500 series, and 6300 series are infringing on the patents, but did not specify which products from the Fujitsu family are tied to the lawsuit. "There isn't one specific product, it's more of the technology and the intellectual property in general," said a Fujitsu spokesman.
The four patents all cover fundamental optical transport functions. Two are optical amplifier related, one deals with timing and synchronization, and the other describes error correction in transport. They're also all relatively old patents, with three of the four having been registered in the mid-1990s.
A Tellabs spokesperson commented that the company is still reviewing the case and "believes the case is without merit."
For more information, visit www.lightreading.com.