Dell, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola Mobility, Philips and others sued for patent infringement

Advanced Display Technologies of Texas has sued Dell, Futurewei Technologies, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola Mobility Holdings, Philips Electronics North America Corporation, Sanyo North America Corporation, Sony Corporation of America and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications for patent infringement. The patents-in-suit are US5739931 (the ‘931 patent), entitled “Illumination system employing an array of microprisms” and US6261664 (the ‘664 patent), entitled “Optical structures for diffusing light”. The lawsuit was filed on August 01, 2011 in the Texas Eastern District Court.

This is the second instance where Advanced Display Technologies of Texas has sued company's for infringing the '931 and the '664 patents. These patents were also mentioned in the lawsuit filed against Apple, AU Optronics, Vizio, Sharp, Sharp Electronics, Haier America Trading, Research In Motion, ASUSTeK Computer, ASUS Computer International, Haier Group, ViewSonic, AU Optronics Corporation America on January 5, 2011 in the Texas Eastern District Court.

The original assignee of the ‘931 and the ‘664 patent is Alliedsignal Inc, which transferred the assignment to Honeywell International, which in turn sold all the rights to Advanced Display Technologies of Texas. Apart from the ‘931 patent and the ‘664 patent, Advanced Display Technologies of Texas owns the following patents in United States:

US5396350: Backlighting apparatus employing an array of microprisms

US5555109: Illumination system employing an array of microprisms

US6129439: Illumination system employing an array of multi-faceted microprisms

US5428468: Illumination system employing an array of microprisms

US5521725: Illumination system employing an array of microprisms

US6010747: Process for making optical structures for diffusing light

The ‘931 patent is a continuation of US5555109, which is a continuation of US5428468, which is a continuation in part of US5396350. The ‘664 patent is a division of US6010747.

Claim 1 of the ‘931 patent:

“An illumination assembly comprising:

(a) a light transmitting means having at least one light accepting surface;

(b) reflecting means comprising an array of microprisms wherein at least one microprism comprises;

(i) a light input surface optically coupled to said light transmitting means;

(ii) a light output surface distal from said light input surface and having a surface area at least equal to the surface area of said light input surface;

(iii) a first pair of sidewalls disposed between said light input surface and said light output surface and at least one of said sidewalls forms a first tilt angle with respect to the normal of the surface of said light transmitting means; and

(iv) a second pair of sidewalls disposed between said light input surface and said light output surface and at least one of said sidewalls forms a second tilt angle with respect to the normal of the surface of said light transmitting means.”

Claim 1 of the ‘664 patent:

“An optical diffuser comprising a polymerized material layer on a transparent or translucent substrate, which layer has a highly modulated surface having smooth bumps ranging from about 1 micron to about 20 microns in both height and width.”

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Source: Priorsmart.com