Garmin Obtains Complete Victory on TomTom Patents, Will Pursue Own Patent Claims Against TomTom |
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By: Garmin Ltd. Posted: 2006-12-25 23:08:52 |
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Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) announced today that it has received a decision from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on pending cross motions for summary judgment filed by Garmin and TomTom in their pending patent litigation. The Court's ruling gave Garmin a complete victory in its defense of TomTom's claims of infringement of three patents and left unadjudicated many of the claims filed by Garmin against TomTom.
Garmin currently owns 289 U.S. patents and 13 foreign patents and has 181 patent applications pending. In early February of this year, Garmin Ltd. and Garmin Corporation Garmin sued TomTom in Wisconsin alleging that TomTom infringed five patents dealing with certain "ease-of-use" features developed by Garmin engineers. After the Wisconsin lawsuit was filed, TomTom, which does not hold any U.S. patents for technology it developed itself, purchased three U.S. patents from Horizon Navigation, Inc. and then asserted these patents in a counterclaim in the Wisconsin lawsuit. TomTom alleged that over 60 products made by Garmin infringed these three patents and sought substantial damages and a permanent injunction against further sales of these Garmin products. The parties filed motions for summary judgment earlier this fall. In her ruling on December 22, 2006, Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that each and every claim asserted by TomTom was not infringed by Garmin, either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents. While Judge Crabb found that certain of Garmin's claims against TomTom could not go forward, her ruling did not resolve multiple patent infringement claims asserted by Garmin against TomTom. While the ruling administratively closed the case, Garmin intends to pursue these additional unadjudicated claims. "We are pleased with Judge Crabb's rejection of TomTom's infringement claims against Garmin", said Andrew Etkind, Garmin's General Counsel. "Garmin will continue to take all necessary action against those who misappropriate the innovations developed by Garmin's engineers. While Garmin would prefer not to litigate, it will not stand idly by and allow others, like TomTom, to exploit Garmin's technology." Since its founding in 1989, Garmin has been considered the leading pioneer and innovator in consumer navigation devices - and is on track to introduce 70 new products in 2006. Within the last year, Garmin's nüvi line of personal navigation devices has become the benchmark by which others are judged. Garmin was recently named by Forbes magazine as America's best managed company in the field of technology hardware and equipment and as one of the 400 best publicly traded companies in America. Garmin was recently selected as an inaugural constituent of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index based on the value of Garmin's patent portfolio. In August of this year, Garmin filed a separate patent infringement action against TomTom in the Eastern District of Texas. The Texas lawsuit involves a single patent covering the core features of all portable navigation devices. Judge Crabb's ruling has no impact on this Texas litigation, which is set for trial in the fall of 2008. Garmin International Inc. is a member of the Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN) group of companies, which designs and manufactures navigation, communication and information devices - most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin is a leader in the general aviation and consumer GPS markets and its products serve aviation, marine, outdoor recreation, automotive, wireless and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved. Notice on forward-looking statements: This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. All statements regarding the company's future product introductions are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management's current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. |
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