U.S. Patent & Trademark Office Rejects Hexagon Patent Claims
LAKE MARY, Fla., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FARO Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: FARO) today announced that key claims in Hexagon's '148 patent have been rejected by the Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) in a Reexamination Proceeding that had originally been initiated by FARO. The rejected claims include all the claims involved in the ongoing '148 patent infringement case filed by Romer-CimCore, a subsidiary of Hexagon, AB - FARO's largest competitor.
"The PTO's initial rejection substantiates our continuing belief that the '148 patent is invalid," FARO President and CEO Jay Freeland said.
If this rejection is ultimately made final, the patent claims asserted against the Company in the Hexagon litigation will be invalidated, and FARO will then prevail in its litigation. The Hexagon '148 patent claims cover a four-jointed arm construction with a mechanically unlimited rotation of certain joints. The PTO, in its rejection, has determined that this feature was already found in a number of prior patents and so determined that the '148 claims were "obvious" in view of these prior patents. Hexagon will have the right to respond to, and eventually appeal, the rejection of the claims.
About FARO
With more than 13,000 installations and 5,700 customers globally, FARO Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, and markets portable, computerized measurement devices and software used to create digital models - or to perform evaluations against an existing model - for anything requiring highly detailed 3-D measurements, including part and assembly inspection, factory planning and asset documentation, as well as specialized applications ranging from surveying, recreating accident sites and crime scenes to digitally preserving historical sites.
FARO's technology increases productivity by dramatically reducing the amount of on-site measuring time, and the various industry-specific software packages enable users to process and present their results quickly and more effectively.
Principal products include the world's best-selling portable measurement arm - the FaroArm; the world's best-selling laser tracker - the FARO Laser Tracker X and Xi; the FARO Laser ScanArm; FARO Laser Scanner LS; the FARO Gage, Gage-PLUS and PowerGAGE; and the CAM2 family of advanced CAD-based measurement and reporting software. FARO Technologies is ISO-9001 certified and ISO-17025 laboratory registered.
Learn more at www.faro.com
SOURCE FARO Technologies, Inc.
12/12/2006
CONTACT: Darin Sahler, Global PR Manager of FARO Technologies, Inc., +1-407-333-9911, or Darin.Sahler@faro.com
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