Cool Laser Optics Settles, Files Infringement Cases

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Sept. 25 -- Cool Laser Optics Inc. (CLO), the owner of certain patents regarding skin cooling, announced it has reached an agreement with Lumenis Inc., a laser manufacturer, over issues regarding alleged infringement of certain CLO patents.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Lumenis has acquired from CLO a license for the pertinent intellectual property. CLO's patents apply to contact cooling devices that are often integral parts of medical lasers sold around the world by a number of manufacturers.

On Sept. 12, CLO filed patent infringement complaints in US District Court against four other manufacturers of contact cooling devices or cosmetic lasers using such devices: Laserscope Inc., Nidek Inc., Sciton Inc and MedArt Inc.

"Since we started commercial operations in 1996, we have been very clear about our willingness to license our technology, and we have done so on several occasions," said CLO President Michael L. Barretti in a statement. "We have also said we will vigorously defend our intellectual property rights, and these actions reflect the fact that we will not tolerate a disregard for those rights granted to CLO by the federal government."