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Cognex whips Acacia, Veritec in patent fight

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The troll word came up in the discussion by Cognex about its victory over Acacia, Veritec (VCode, VData); AP reported-- Cognex Chief Executive Robert J. Shillman denounced "abusive patent trolling ... the activity of purchasing highly questionable patents from patent holders and then asserting them against well-respected and ethical corporations in the hope of extracting large monetary settlements (which are often calculated to be a bit less than the cost of litigation) ... has unfortunately become a growth 'business' in America over the past decade."

The Boston Business Journal reported of a: ruling in U.S. District Court in Minnesota concluded that a patent Acacia Research Corp. and Veritiec Inc. owned was "invalid and unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by the defendants during the procurement of the patent,"

The patent in question had claims directed to a system for capturing and reading 2D symbology codes.

Full post as published by IPBiz on May 22, 2008 (boomark / email).