Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich LLP successfully represented Earth Resource Mapping, Inc., an Australian company, in a patent dispute against LizardTech, Inc. before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The firm received the order on Thursday, March 18.
Chief Judge Coughenour granted Earth Resource Mapping’s motions for summary judgment of invalidity and non-infringement on a complex, wavelet-based image compression patent asserted by Seattle-based LizardTech against ERM, represented by Gray Cary. LizardTech is part of Celartem Technology Inc., a Japan-based company focused on storage and distribution technologies for digital images.
“Since 1999, when LizardTech initiated their litigation against ERM, Stewart Brown and his team at Gray Cary have worked extremely hard to successfully defend us against LizardTech’s anti-competitive actions,” said Stuart Nixon, Earth Resource Mapping’s chief executive officer and founder. “ERM is now free to concentrate on our strategic business and, most importantly, our customers. We are absolutely delighted.”
“We are pleased to have prevailed at long last on what we and our client have always viewed as meritless charges of patent infringement,” added Stewart Brown, a partner in Gray Cary’s patent litigation practice who led the team representing ERM. “We appreciate the court’s careful consideration and sound disposition of these issues.”
Gray Cary’s team representing ERM included San Diego patent litigators Rick Mulloy, Barry Shelton, Joe Reid and Cathy Bencivengo. Rob Ayling, a transactional attorney who is of counsel with Gray Cary, also contributed. Gray Cary’s patent litigation practice consists of more than 70 attorneys. The firm has represented some of the world’s largest companies, including Adobe Systems, Agilent Technologies, Hewlett Packard, Maxtor and Samsung.
ABOUT EARTH MAPPING RESOURCES, INC.
Earth Resource Mapping is committed to making image processing easier so that professionals at all skill levels and disciplines can effectively utilize the power of geoprocessing and remote sensing technologies. The company is totally committed to open software standards for imagery. ER Mapper is used by professionals in a wide range of industries, including airphoto data, state and local government, environmental science, telecommunications, defense, agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, and mining. Earth Resource Mapping has regional offices in Perth, Australia; London; and San Diego, Calif.
