MOBOTIX Corp. succeeded again in a patent dispute with San Antonio, Texas-based e-Watch Inc. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted MOBOTIX Corp.’s requests for review of four patents owned by e-Watch Inc. According to the USPTO, information presented by MOBOTIX Corp. established that there is a reasonable likelihood that MOBOTIX Corp. 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 four patents are cause of action in a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Texas-based e-Watch Inc. at the U.S federal court in San Antonio (Texas). In June, the court granted MOBOTIX Corp.’s motion for stay of the litigation pending review of the validity of the patents at the USPTO and confirmed the view of MOBOTIX Corp. that the patent lawsuit will be rendered irrelevant if the claims of the patents are cancelled in the review proceedings at the USPTO.
MOBOTIX Corp. holds that the claims of the four 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 four 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 Corp.
