MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 19 -- EOS GmbH, a European manufacturer of rapid prototyping systems, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the US against DTM Corp. of Austin, Texas, and Compression, a division of Moll Industries Inc. in Lake Forest, Calif., a DTM customer. The lawsuit alleges infringement of US Patents No. 4,929,402, No. 5,554,336 and No. 5,630,981 through the manufacture, sale and use of Sinterstation systems. EOS seeks compensatory damages, including triple damages for willful and deliberate infringement, and an injunction against further infringement.
Despite repeated warnings, DTM has taken no action to avoid infringement of our patent rights by themselves and their customers, said Hans J. Langer, president and CEO of EOS. At the same time, DTM has continued to attack us in the courts. EOS has tried to resolve these issues out of court. In this situation, we have no alternative but to now take positive action to protect our patent rights. We hope that this litigation will enable a swift resolution of the situation, which we feel will be in the best interest of not only EOS but all rapid prototyping users.
DTM had previously filed suit in three European countries against EOS and some customers of EOS, alleging infringement of European Patents No. 0 287 657 and No. 0 542 729 and the German utility model 8718128.2, all of which are licensed to DTM from the University of Texas. Meanwhile, the utility model has been declared invalid by the German federal patent court, and the scope of both of the European patents has been restricted by the European Patent Office to only include methods and apparatus which are not included in any EOS products.