Case Filed: Mar 13, 2014
Case Closed: May 28, 2014
Court: Texas Eastern District
Court
Judge: Rodney Gilstrap
Case Summary:
Patent holding company Penovia
filed an infringement suit against Motorola accusing them of infringing the
company’s patented technology for office machine monitoring device.
Patent in Suit:
The patent in question was: US5822221
entitled ‘Office machine monitoring device,’ duly issued by UPSTO on Oct 13, 1998
and normally expiring[i]
by Dec 04, 2016. However, according to USPTO, the ‘221 patent expired around
Nov 2010, because its owner, the inventor Frank S. Groenteman, was not able to
pay the maintenance fee. Later, Penovia acquired the patent and is the current assignee[ii]
of the ‘221 patent (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database).
As in Complaint:
The complaint alleged that
Motorola infringed the patent, which covers a device that can wirelessly
transmit messages to and receive communications from office machines such as
computers. Defendant is alleged to have directly infringed the ‘221 patent by
making, using, importing, selling and/or offering of products or services
related to office machine monitoring devices, the complaint said. The accused
product includes Motorola MC3100 Series Mobile Computer. Penovia demanded a
jury trial on all issues so triable.
Case End:
Motorola filed applications for
extension of time to answer the complaint, which was granted. Penovia filed a notice of voluntary
dismissal before Motorola filed a response to the complaint. The dismissal notice stated that
according to Rule 41(a)(1), an action may be dismissed by the plaintiff without
order of court by filing a notice of dismissal at any time before adverse party
answers. Accordingly, Penovia voluntarily dismissed defendant with prejudice,
thereby ending the case.
Other Cases by Penovia:
Since 2013, Penovia has been filling cases against various electronics
and mobile industries including Canon, Philips, Xerox, Samsung, Nokia, Apple, Acer, HP, Microsoft,
etc., asserting the same patent.
See 2:14-cv-00227
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[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.