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North Kingstown, Rhode Island, October 18, 2005
- ROMER, a Hexagon Metrology company, has successfully obtained
reinstatement of a favorable patent claim construction (“Markman”)
ruling in its ongoing patent infringement case against FARO
Technologies, Inc., Lake Mary, Florida (NASDAQ: FARO). In response to
FARO’s recent request that the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of California reconsider its November 29, 2004 "Markman"
ruling, the Court vacated that original ruling and conducted a
supplemental “Markman” hearing on October 3, 2005. As a consequence of
that supplemental hearing, the Court has now issued a revised claim
construction order that reaffirms and in several respects strengthens
its earlier claim construction order. (CimCore Corp., et al. v. Faro
Technologies, Inc., Civil Action No. 03-CV-2355 B(WMc)).
The Court has scheduled a hearing on ROMER’s renewed and expanded
motion for summary judgment of patent infringement for November 7,
2005. ROMER’s renewed motion will again seek a ruling that FARO's
articulated FaroArms® infringe each of claims 1, 2, & 3 of ROMER's
U.S. Patent No. 5,829,148 (“the ‘148 patent”). The hearing will also
afford ROMER the opportunity to request a ruling on two new aspects of
the case. First, ROMER will request that additional FARO products not
included in the original motion infringe the ‘148 patent: the FARO
Gage™, Gage Plus™, ScanArm, Digital Template, and Control Station.
Second, ROMER will seek a ruling that FARO’s recently announced
purported “design-around” of the ‘148 patent, which only modifies the
products’ computer software, does not avoid infringement of the ‘148
patent. ROMER is now seeking damages and an injunction regarding FARO's
manufacture, use, and sale of each of these additional products.
William Gruber, Hexagon Metrology North America's president, stated
that "We are pleased that the Court has reaffirmed and strengthened its
earlier ‘Markman’ ruling. The new hearing has given us the opportunity
to expand the scope of the case to nearly all of FARO’s product line,
as well as FARO’s supposed software ‘design-around’ of our ‘148 patent,
which was hurriedly announced in the wake of the first summary judgment
ruling. Since the settlement negotiations we conducted last week with
FARO were unsuccessful, we are prepared to take this case all the way
to the scheduled jury trial in January 2006. We remain confident that
ROMER will obtain a favorable ruling and recover substantial damages as
a result of FARO's ongoing infringement of our patented technology.”
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