Whirlpool Corporation, the world’s largest appliance maker, said it won a six-month stay of litigation in a refrigerator-technology patent infringement lawsuit brought in Trenton, New Jersey, by South Korean rival LG Electronics Inc. The patent, belonging to LG Electronics Inc., involved here is United States Patent No. 7,392,665, titled “Refrigerator with icemaker”, issued by USPTO on 1st July 2008.
The postponement was related “to progress in separate proceedings challenging the validity of LG’s patents” in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Marc Bitzer, president of Whirlpool’s North America Region, stated that they expect LG’s patents to be found invalid under the re-examination proceedings. The stay order was filed by the court October 5.
In another case, Whirlpool and Seoul-based LG halted proceedings in mid-trial last week in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
Kristine Vernier, a Whirlpool spokeswoman, said, “The court’s ruling will be entered and made public in the near future, resolving the issues that were pending in this retrial” over a patent for refrigerator icemakers. In the Delaware case, Whirlpool lawyers asked a jury to award $16.2 million in patent damages. The patent in question in that case is Whirlpool’s patent 6,082,130, titled “Ice delivery system for a refrigerator”, issued in July 2000.
The Delaware case is LG Electronics v. Whirlpool Corp., 1:08-cv-00234, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington). The New Jersey case is LG Electronics v. Whirlpool Corp., 2:09-cv-05142-GEB, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey (Newark).
Author: Taruni
Images from wikipedia.
0 comments:
Post a Comment