MOBOTIX succeeded again in a patent dispute with San Antonio, Texas-based e-Watch. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted MOBOTIX‘s requests for review of 4 patents owned by e-Watch. According to the USPTO, information presented by MOBOTIX established that there is a reasonable likelihood that MOBOTIX would prevail in showing unpatentability of the challenged patent claims.
Third-party publications found through extensive search as well as documentation and presentations published by MOBOTIX at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in February 2000 show that the contents of the patent claims had been disclosed prior to the application for patent.
The 4 patents are cause of action in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Texas-based e-Watch at the U.S federal court in San Antonio. In June, the court granted MOBOTIX motion for stay of the litigation pending review of the validity of the patents at the USPTO and confirmed the view of MOBOTIX that the patent lawsuit will be rendered irrelevant if the claims of the patents are cancelled in the review proceedings at the USPTO.
MOBOTIX holds that the claims of the 4 patents are unpatentable and consequently requested cancellation of the patents at the USPTO. The requests not only comprise the claims asserted in the lawsuit but above that challenge almost all claims of the 4 patents.
“We are pleased that the USPTO granted our requests for patent review. This serves not only to our own benefit but to the benefit of all manufacturers and every user of modern IP video surveillance solutions. Also in the future, we will have our defenses up when it comes to patent lawsuits and we will always check all of our legal options.”, explains Steve Gorski, General Manager at MOBOTIX.