Wednesday, September 25, 2019

SiOnyx vs Hamamatsu Patent Litigation Wrap-Up

Fish and Richardson Litigation Blog publishes a summary of SiOnyx vs Hamamatsu Photonics (HPK) patent lawsuit:

"At trial, the jury found that the HPK willfully infringed SiOnyx’s U.S. Patent No. 8,080,467. The jury also found that HPK breached a non-disclosure agreement it had with SiOnyx, because “HPK took [SiOnyx’s] inventive ideas, added other inventive ideas to it, and obtained [nine] patents as a result.”

The jury awarded SiOnyx $796,469 in damages for breach of contract and $580,640 in damages for unjust enrichment. But, despite finding willful patent infringement, the jury awarded $0 in damages for patent infringement.

SiOnyx moved for “an injunction awarding [it] ownership of [HPK’s nine] patents….” The Court considered the jury’s finding that “HPK [] took confidential information SiOnyx had entrusted to it and used it for its own gain [by filing nine patents].” ....The Court thus granted an affirmative injunction “awarding and transferring ownership of [HPK’s nine] patents to SiOnyx[].”

The Court explained that “SiOnyx is a tiny company relying on a single type of technology, whereas HPK is a large company with a broad and diversified range of products.” Thus, the Court granted an injunction prohibiting HPK from “making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing products infringing [SiOnyx’s] ’467 patent.”

HPK appealed this case to the Federal Circuit in late August, and that appeal is pending.
"

1 comment:

  1. HPK borrowed 'black Si technique 'from SiOnyx without returning.It is very disappointing that superior technique was stolen.

    ReplyDelete

All comments are moderated to avoid spam and personal attacks.