Suit seeks damages and injunctive relief in United States
CALGARY, AB --- April 2, 2009 --- SMART Technologies ULC (“SMART”) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against NextWindow Ltd. (“NextWindow”) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, to enforce SMART’s Digital Vision Touch (“DViT”) technology patent portfolio. In its complaint SMART alleges NextWindow has infringed several of SMART’s DViT technology patents. SMART is seeking an unspecified amount of damages as well as injunctive relief against NextWindow to prevent the importation and sale of infringing products in the United States.
SMART’s’ DViT technology enables cost-effective touch for a wide range of touch-enabled devices, including flat panel displays and computer screens. Over a considerable number of years, SMART has been actively filing patent applications and obtaining patents in the United States and globally to protect its intellectual property related to touch technologies, including DViT technology, and proprietary aspects of other technologies. These patent applications and issued patents form the basis for an active IP licensing program at SMART for its technology portfolios.
“SMART has invested a great deal in the inventions and intellectual property covered by its growing DViT technology portfolio," said Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. ”When a fair and reasonable licensing agreement cannot be reached, we have no choice but to pursue legal action to protect our patent portfolio and our licensees against this unlicensed use.”