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Patent infringement reversal :)


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Fallon Luminous Products Wins Legal Victory as U.S. Court of Appeals Reverses Verdict in Patent Infringement Case

Knoxville, Tennessee—Fallon Luminous Products Corp., a leading manufacturer of lighted signs, announced that recently the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington D.C., overturned the earlier decision of the District Court in Cookeville, Tennessee and ruled in favor of Fallon in its appeal of a patent infringement suit brought against Fallon by iLight Technologies. The Court vacated both the monetary judgment and the injunction that had been entered against Fallon by the District Court.

“This court decision is a major victory for our company and our customers,” said John Perrachon, Chief Executive Officer of Fallon Luminous Products. “We believe this ruling validates what we have said consistently since the lawsuit was filed-that our products do not violate iLight’s patents. While the case has been remanded to the district court, we believe it will be a simple matter to prove noninfringement in view of the appellate court’s ruling. We thank our customers and suppliers for their good faith and confidence through this ordeal.”

iLight Patents Under Review

The validity of iLight’s patents is the subject of separate proceedings in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) brought by another company. In March, the USPTO rejected all of the claims in one of iLight’s three patents that were at issue in the Fallon trial as being unpatentable. The USPTO is also reconsidering whether the other two patents asserted against Fallon should have ever been issued.

Fallon Victory Benefits Entire Industry

“It is unfortunate that we and our customers have had to suffer through a costly, protracted court battle on this issue,” Perrachon added. “However, the court’s decision is a real victory for the lighting industry as a whole. We are confident it will help prevent unethical practices of companies who use legal manipulation in an attempt to extract fees from real manufacturers, and, as a result, increase customer costs.”

About Fallon Luminous Products

Established in 1987, Fallon Luminous Products is the supplier of choice for discriminating and high profile buyers of custom point-of-sale, retail and decorative lighted signage. Fallon provides the most diversified product selection in the industry, and ensures the highest quality and value, using state-of-the-art technology and only the finest materials.

GOOD things happen for a reason......

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so can someone explain this case is simple terms without all the legal mumbo jumbo?

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Brian Phillips | expresssignandneon@sbcglobal.net | P. 812-882-3278

Express Sign & Neon | 119 S. 15th Street - Vincennes - IN 47591

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so can someone explain this case is simple terms without all the legal mumbo jumbo?

It means that ilight initially sued Fallon for patent infringement and initially won. This was about to put Fallon into bankruptcy, but they later won an appeal of the ruling which states that they weren't in fact in violation and don't have to pay the millions in damages they were assessed the first go around.

So not only did Fallon win, it also damages the validity of the patents themselves, meaning the USPTO may invalidate the patent entirely and is actually reviewing 2 other patents that ilight owns, potentially voiding them as well.

Basically, it means that the lawyers will all make a lot of money. The USPTO hands out a lot of dubious patents that never should be issued, which forces companies to pay big money to settle in court, since the patent office doesn't actually enforce any patents. They only issue them, then it's up to private individuals or companies to blow their brains out in court making sense of what is valid and what isn't.

In this case, it means that an LED border tube that has a tube-like casing/diffuser may be completely patent free.

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In this case, it means that an LED border tube that has a tube-like casing/diffuser may be completely patent free.

thanks that is what I was wondering

Installation & Maintenance Services

Brian Phillips | expresssignandneon@sbcglobal.net | P. 812-882-3278

Express Sign & Neon | 119 S. 15th Street - Vincennes - IN 47591

express%20neon%20sig.jpg

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Sounds like a rather wide-angle patent anyway. But then, the USA seems to have a rather gung-ho attitude to patenting everything for profit.

All this achieves is domination of the market by countries with contempt for USA patents like China.

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Some places around the world do not invent - they merely knock off and copy

Someone once told me that the only thing you really own is your sanity and your ideas.

Even though it can be quite entertaining to live in your head and play with the thoughts and ideas - that is just not very healthy

So I say to those that invent - tell the world what you did and then invent something else so that they are focused on what you did yesterday and not how you are planning for tomorrow

At Light Fair Nichia introduced an LED that is 10x brighter than anything on the market. They own a lot of patents but keep on pushing forward with actualizing some brilliant ideas.

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I have to admit to being rueful about building a little PIC microcontroller based RGB colour changing circuit that used PWM to create a random cycle of colours back in October of 1996. (The PCB file is dated Oct 10th 1996) That was when companies like Color Kinetics didn't even exist and was before the availability of bright Gallium Nitride based blue and greens. Instead my own design used gallium arsenide reds and greens and silicon carbide blues which resulted in a very low light output. The output was so low that I discontinued the project after showing it to some of my friends.

I certainly didn't think at the time that there was anything patentable about mixing the output of red, green and blue LEDs with Pulse Width Modulation to control their intensities. It just struck me as common technology. So seeing companies like CK patent such an obvious concept and then use the litigation to destroy the market for their personal profit was just repulsive.

As for the use of LEDs in tubular diffusers... Of course it's been done before well into the days before blue or white LEDs were readily available. Think ropelights and tivoli or even the plethora of kiddies toys with LEDs inside.

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