MONSEY, NY, June 9, 1997 - Seven leading modem manufacturers have been named in a patent infringement suit by General Patent Corporation (GPC). The suit seeks to enforce four of GPC's patents, which cover specific aspects of PC Card modems, the credit-card-size modems used in notebook and laptop personal computers. The alleged infringers include modem leaders Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. and Boca Research, Inc. The suit was filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California in Orange County.
Alexander Poltorak, Ph.D., GPC's chairman and CEO, said that GPC also filed a patent infringement suit against IBM and U.S. Robotics Corp. in March for alleged infringement of the PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) patents, and that other companies have been notified of infringing activities.
"Every company manufacturing or selling PC Cards owes it to themselves to take a close look at our patents and consider taking a license," said Dr. Poltorak.
GPC is represented by the law firm of Fish & Richardson, P.C. One of the attorneys in the case, Chris Marchese, noted that the patents represent valuable inventions with respect to PCMCIA cards.
The patents that are alleged to be infringed are U.S. Patent No. 4,603,320 ("Connector Interface"), U.S. Patent No. 4,543,450 ("Integrated Connector and Modem"), U.S. Patent No. 4,686,506 ("Multiple Connector Interface"), and U.S. Patent No. 4,972,470 ("Programmable Connector").
Hayes Microcomputer Products is based in Norcross, Georgia. The other modem manufacturers named in the complaint are: Cardinal Technologies, Inc. of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Boca Research, Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida; Xircom, Inc. of Thousand Oaks, California; GVC Technologies, dba MaxTech Corp., of Cerritos, California; Archtek America Corp. of City of Industry, California; and New Media Corp. of Irvine, California.
GPC is an international technology transfer company headquartered in Monsey, N.Y. In addition to owning the PC Card patents, GPC is active in international technology transfer.
Fish & Richardson, P.C. is a premier national intellectual property and technology law firm. Founded in 1878, the firm has over 150 attorneys practicing in seven offices across the country: Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Houston, the Twin Cities, the Silicon Valley and Southern California.