Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ: FNSR) announced today that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against The DirecTV Group, Inc. and related entities (DirecTV) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, located in Beaumont, Texas. The suit alleges that DirecTV has engaged in and continues to engage in willful infringement of Finisar's U.S. Patent No. 5,404,505 (the '505 patent) directed to an information transmission system. The '505 patent was invented by Finisar's Chief Technology Officer and co-founder, Dr. Frank Levinson. Finisar is seeking monetary damages from DirecTV as well as injunctive relief. The lawsuit states that Finisar repeatedly contacted DirecTV about its infringement of the '505 patent throughout 2004 and early 2005, indicating its willingness to engage DirecTV in licensing discussions, but Finisar's requests to begin a dialog on the matter were not successful. "While we are not a litigious company, we have not been able to make any meaningful progress in resolving this infringement by any other means," said Steve Workman, Finisar's Chief Financial Officer. "We obviously believe that we have strong grounds for taking this action and that our patent will ultimately be enforced in this case."

Posted by GEN-ERIC at 12:12:44 am into the following categories: In The News

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