General Patent Corporation Represented Acticon in These Transactions
SUFFERN, N.Y., June 17, 2002 - Acticon Technologies LLC (Acticon) has recently settled its patent infringement lawsuits with Silicom, Inc. of Mahwah, N.J. (Silicom) and Shining Technology, Inc. of Cypress, Calif. (Shining), and entered into license agreements with three other companies. Both the infringement and the licenses pertained to Acticon's portfolio of four "smart connector" patents. General Patent Corporation (GPC), a patent licensing and enforcement firm headquartered in Suffern, N.Y., represented Acticon in these transactions.
Acticon filed suit against Silicom for patent infringement in March of 2002 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The complaint alleged that the PC Card modems, network adapters and combo cards made by Silicom infringed the Acticon patents. The parties reached an amicable resolution of this dispute, which resulted in Acticon withdrawing its action against Silicom. Silicom and Acticon had been engaged in licensing discussions prior to initiation of the lawsuit. Acticon sued Shining, together with certain of its manufacturers and distributors, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in January of 2002. In response to the suit, Shining took a license under the patents.
"Now that we have negotiated 46 licensing agreements and successfully settled 12 lawsuits on behalf of Acticon, most infringing companies quickly agree to take a license under the patents," said Alexander Poltorak, GPC's Chairman and CEO. "Unfortunately," he added, "for some companies it takes a lawsuit to get their attention."
Other companies that have recently licensed the Acticon patents include Woodhead Canada Limited, a subsidiary of Woodhead Industries, Inc. of Chicago, Ill., an international manufacturer of electronic and industrial communication products; Edimax Technologies Co., Ltd. of Taiwan, an international company engaged in the design and manufacture of networking products, and its subsidiary Edimax Computer Co. of Santa Clara, Calif.; and Accton Technology Corporation of Taiwan, an international vendor of communication products.
"We feel that all the recent licensees and successful law suits are testimony to the industry's high regard for Acticon's award-winning 'smart connector' technology, which has become a de facto standard in computer communications," said Dr. Steven Farago, Acticon's chief technologist.
Acticon's "smart connector" patents cover specific aspects of PC cards and other "smart connector" devices used in mobile computer communication, networking and instrumentation control. More than 90% of the PC cards sold in the United States today are licensed under the Acticon patents.