Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Once again, ahead of a major industry show, this time of course #InfoComm19, Barco has filed suit to in order to protect its Barco ClickShare patents.
This time its Vivitek Corporation and its parent company Delta Electronics, Inc. who are accused of infringing Barco’s ClickShare patents via their wireless presentation devices, including the LauncherPlus device and the NovoEnterprise unit. Barco also filed suit against Sahara Presentation Systems regarding its Clevershare and Clevertouch Pro products.
Barco’s cases against Vivitek and Sahara are the latest in a coordinated series of actions taken by Barco worldwide to protect its ClickShare technology as well as the significant efforts and investments of its distributors, resellers and other channel partners in commercializing ClickShare. Barco is enforcing its patents against manufacturers and distributors who make, distribute, market, and sell wireless presentation systems copying ClickShare’s original features. Barco believes that Vivitek and Clevertouch make and distribute such wireless devices in multiple global markets.
After a string of successful legal actions in Europe, Barco is now focusing on excluding infringing devices from the U.S. market as well. Barco seems well-positioned to enforce its U.S. patents because the novelty and inventiveness of ClickShare technology was recently reaffirmed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). In March and April of 2019, at the conclusion of a re-examination proceeding, the USPTO reconfirmed two of Barco’s ClickShare patents, upholding ClickShare’s patentability and Barco’s right to enforce its intellectual property rights against those who copy it.
Barco’s program of patent enforcement actions is aimed at stopping infringers and preserving the value of Barco’s investment in ClickShare technology. In 2018, Barco filed patent infringement lawsuits in the Netherlands and Germany against Kindermann for sale of its Klick & Show wireless presentation system, and Delta Electronics for sale of its Vivitek NovoConnect wireless presentation system.
Earlier this year, a Dutch court authorized seizure of an infringing wireless presentation system at #ISE2019 in Amsterdam. In 2018, a preliminary injunction in Danish courts blocked two distributors from distributing and selling a different infringing wireless presentation system. Before that, in 2017, a Dutch court authorized seizure of yet a third different infringing wireless presentation system at the ISE trade show. Meanwhile, several distributors have ceased the sale of their wireless presentation systems.
Barco General Counsel Kurt Verheggen told us “These successes demonstrate the strength of Barco’s IP, which we will continue to take all necessary steps to defend”.
We are told that Barco anticipates more wins – both in court and in the market – in its ongoing fight against infringers.
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