Cognex Corp. announced Tuesday that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Microscan Systems Inc. in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Cognex alleges that Microscan’s Mobile Hawk, a handheld product used to read direct part mark (DPM) codes, infringes a patent held by Cognex. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit Microscan, of Renton, Wash., from using Cognex’s patented technology in its products, and to recover damages resulting from the infringement. "Microscan has made Cognex fully aware of its belief that the patent alleged is not infringed by the Mobile Hawk and that the relevant patent claims in any event are invalid," Microscan President Scott Summerville said in a separate statement. "Microscan will be defending its rights to fairly compete with Cognex to the fullest extent available." Cognex makes bar-code readers and machine vision sensors and systems for manufacturing and distribution process applications. Microscan, a Spectris company, said it invented the first laser diode barcode scanner, the industry standard 2D symbology, Data Matrix, and the AutoVISION machine vision product product line. For more information, visit: www.cognex.com or www.microscan.com