MONSEY, N.Y., October 26, 1998 - General Patent Corporation (GPC) has reached an out-of-court settlement with Xircom, Inc. (Thousand Oaks, Cal.) in a patent infringement suit brought by GPC against seven leading modem manufacturers in May 1997 to enforce four of GPC's patents which cover specific aspects of PCMCIA devices, PC card modems and other computer communications devices.
"We are very pleased that Xircom, a market leader in PCMCIA devices, has joined the other parties which have licensed our patent portfolio," said Alexander Poltorak, GPC's Chairman and CEO. "We believe the results of our licensing efforts to date are a tribute to the ingenious foresight of the two inventors, Farago and Brandt."
Alan Smith of Fish & Richardson, GPC's lead counsel in this case, noted that "Most of the defendants in the lawsuit have settled out-of-court by licensing GPC's patents. It is our hope that with GPC's patents gaining broad industry recognition, there will be no need for further litigation, particularly in view of GPC offering very favorable licensing terms."
The patents include U.S. Patent Nos. 4,543,450 ("Integrated Connector and Modem"), U.S. Patent Nos. 4,603,320 ("Connector Interface"), 4,686,506 ("Multiple Connector Interface") and 4,972,470 ("Programmable Connector").