Koito Manufacturing Wins U.S. Appeals Court Victory; Sughrue Mion Trial Team Scores Another Win

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2004 -- Sughrue Mion, PLLC, one of the country's leading intellectual property law firms, today announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled that Koito Manufacturing Company Ltd. of Japan, and its U.S. subsidiary, North American Lighting Company, acted properly in the development and manufacturing of a key automobile component that is a part of more than 30 different Japanese cars sold in the U.S.

The unanimous decision, which was returned by a three-judge panel on Monday, August 23, upheld an April 2003 jury verdict in the same case. As in this case, the court found that the manufacturing process Koito used to mold plastic tail light lenses in no way infringed on a patent for another process that was held by Turn-Key-Tech.

The April 2003 case was the result of a claim filed for declatory judgment by Sughrue on behalf of Koito in Federal District Court for the Southern District of California, and was decided by a seven-member jury.

"This ruling by the Federal Circuit is especially important," Bill Mandir a partner at Sughrue and the litigator who led the oral argument before the appeals court in May 2004 said, "as this case had the potential to affect millions of cars that are already on the road across the country. We are extremely pleased that the Federal Circuit judges and the California jury concluded what we have known all along -- that there was no infringement of the Turn-Key-Tech patent."

Mr. Mandir added that the Federal Circuit sent the issue of whether Turn- Key-Tech's patent is valid in view of prior art back to the District Court for further review and consideration.

In addition to Mr. Mandir, the Sughrue trial team included: Frank Bernstein, Steve Gruskin, John Rabena and Carl Pellegrini.

Multiple cases filed by Turn-Key-Tech against Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and other Japanese and Korean automobile manufacturers that focus on the same claims are pending.

The case is: Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd. And North American Lighting, Inc., v. Turn-Key-Tech, LLC and Jens Ole Sorensen, Docket No. 03-1565, and the patent at issue is patent #5,045,268.

Sughrue Mion, PLLC, is based in Washington, DC with offices in Silicon Valley and Tokyo. It is one of the largest firms in the country practicing solely in the fields of intellectual property.