ROMER Press Release - December 12, 2006 - ROMER Plans Immediate Response to Initial Office Action from Patent Office in Second Reexamination Proceeding
P R E S S R E L E A S E Press Contact: William Fetter, Director of Marketing and Communications, Hexagon Metrology Inc., 920-906-7514 Link to press release: http://hexagonmetrology.us/content/view/43/20/ ROMER Plans Immediate Response to Initial Office Action from Patent Office in Second Reexamination Proceeding North Kingstown, RI - December 12, 2006 - A jury in a federal court in San Diego, California recently found unanimously in favor of ROMER CimCore et al that the U.S. Patent No. 5,829,148 ("the '148 patent") is valid (CimCore Corp., et al. v. Faro Technologies, Inc., Civil Action No. 03-CV-2355 B(WMc)). The related patent infringement suit is scheduled for re-trial on April 3, 2007, following the first trial where the jury was just one vote shy of a unanimous decision finding that Faro was infringing the '148 patent. In connection with the patent infringement suit, Faro also filed for a re-examination of the '148 patent. Such re-examination is running parallel to the litigation, and ROMER has now received an initial Office Action from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office preliminarily rejecting certain Claims of the '148 patent. ROMER now has its first opportunity to respond to the Patent Office and intends to respond immediately by providing the Patent Office with considerable evidence demonstrating the validity of the '148 patent. ROMER is confident that after being presented with all of the evidence, the Patent Office will reach the same conclusion that the jury in the federal court in San Diego did. The first re-examination of the '148 patent, also conducted by the Patent Office at the request of Faro, resulted in the Patent Office confirming the validity of all of the patent's claims and issuing a Reexamination Certificate for the '148 patent earlier this year. "We know that in reexamination proceedings it is common for the first Office Action to preliminarily reject previously issued claims," said Bill Gruber, President and CEO of Hexagon Metrology North America. "We welcome the opportunity to respond to the initial Office Action, and are confident that the Patent Office will agree with us and the San Diego jury that our patent is valid. We fully expect to receive a second Reexamination Certificate for the '148 patent in 2007." ROMER Inc. and its subsidiary CimCore Corp. designs and manufactures portable coordinate measurement machines. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary within the Measurement Technologies group of Sweden's Hexagon AB (Stockholmsborsen: HEXA B), the world's largest provider of precision dimensional measurement hardware and software. (www.hexagon.se) About ROMER Inc. ROMER Inc., a Hexagon Metrology company, markets and manufactures high accuracy 3D coordinate measurement systems for the industrial marketplace. Since 1973, the company has provided innovative and dependable portable metrology solutions for aerospace, automotive, heavy machinery, and general engineering industries. ROMER's corporate headquarters is located at the Hexagon Metrology Precision Center in Wixom, Michigan. The company provides contract inspection, customer support, technical services and product training at this facility. For more information about ROMER products and services, visit their web site at www.romer.com, call toll-free 800-218-7125, or email: sales@romer.com. About Hexagon Metrology Hexagon Metrology serves the high precision measurement and inspection needs of Worldwide manufacturers with its extensive line of metrology hardware, software, accessories, and customer services. The company's name-brand portfolio of quality assurance products include Brown & Sharpe, Leica Geosystems, ROMER, Sheffield, PC-DMIS, DEA, Leitz, and TESA. Hexagon Metrology has an unrivaled installed base of more than 1.5 million handheld, stationary and portable measurement devices, and over 25,000 seats of PC-DMIS metrology software. The company is a subsidiary of Hexagon Measurement Technologies, a business unit of Hexagon AB (Nacka Strand, Sweden), a publicly-traded company (Stockholmsborsen: HEXA B). The Hexagon group consists of nearly 8,200 employees located in 30 countries. Call 1-800-426-1066 or visit www.hexagonmetrology.us for more information about Hexagon Metrology North America and its trusted brands. -- 30 --