Essilor and VSP Settle Suit over Progressive Addition Lenses

A patent infringement case was filed by Essilor against VSP Optical Group on Feb 22, 2013 in the Texas Eastern District Court for infringing eyeglass lenses used to correct presbyopia and other disorders of accommodation. The other named defendants in this case were: Indizen Optical Technologies, a lens design software (LDS) company and Younger Optics which develops optical lens solutions. Essilor designs, manufactures, and sells ophthalmic lenses and ophthalmic optical instruments.

The patent involved in the suit is US6149271, which was originally issued to Edgar V. Menezes, James S. Merritt and William Kokonaski on Nov 21, 2000 and expiring[i] by Oct 23, 2018. The patent is currently assigned[ii] to Essilor International (source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).

The '271 patent claims progressive addition lenses and processes for making progressive addition lenses. The complaint alleged that Indizen Optical Technologies develops a lens design software, IOT Futura® and Younger Optics provides semi-finished lenses, both of which help in producing finished lenses manufactured by VSP, UNITY PLxpression lenses that infringe the '271 Patent. The complaint states that Indizen Optical Technologies and Younger Optics encouraged VSP to make such infringing lenses. Essilor also stated in the complaint that, it sent a letter to defendants notifying their infringement of Essilor's 271 patent.

The case is now concluded as the parties agreed to settle the dispute. On Nov 13, Essilor filed stipulation of dismissal pursuant to which the Court ordered all the claims and counterclaims in this action to be dismissed with prejudice with each party bearing its own attorneys’ fees and costs.

See 4:13-cv-00099 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

* Expected expiration date using Patent Term Estimator, use our free tool or download our free Android app on Google Play Store.

[i] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.

[ii] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.