Future Fibre Technologies (FFT), the global leader in the development, manufacturing and installation of fibre-optic intrusion detection systems, previously announced that it filed a lawsuit against Optellios on July 25 2008. In the lawsuit, FFT claimed that it is the rightful owner of United States patent no. 7,142,736 (‘736 patent).
At that time FFT sought, among other things, that the ‘736 patent be assigned to FFT and stated: "The company firmly believed that FFT employees are the rightful inventors of the ‘736 patent and that the patent belonged to FFT."
In response, Optellios asserted in part that the suit was precluded by a previous settlement agreement between the parties.
On August 15, 2011, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware found in favour of FFT on this issue and denied the Optellios motion to enforce the previous settlement agreement.
FFT is pleased to announce that the parties have now reached a comprehensive settlement of the dispute and a consent judgment and order has been issued dismissing the case. Importantly:
a. On December 22, 2011 Optellios assigned the ‘736 patent to FFT and FFT is now the sole owner of the ‘736 patent.
b. On April 4, 2012, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware issued an order to correct the inventorship of the ‘736 patent and ordered the United States Patent and Trademark Office to add the FFT inventors to the ‘736 patent.
"We are pleased that this action is settled and we have succeeded in our goal to be the sole owner of the ‘736 patent, and that the court agreed that the FFT inventors be added to the patent," said Rob Broomfield, CEO of FFT.