Vicor Corp. (Andover, MA) has sued SynQor, Inc. (Boxborough, MA) for declaratory judgment that its bus converter Module products do not infringe SynQor’s patents and that the patents are invalid. The SynQor patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,072,190; 7,269,034; 7,272,021; 7,558,083; and 7,564,702. Both companies manufacture power conversion components. (While the complaint calls Vicor a “leading manufacturer,” it declines to bestow that honor on SynQor.)
The complaint alleges that in 2007 SynQor sued thirteen defendants in the Eastern District of Texas on the patents and accused products similar to those sold by Vicor of infringement. During a December 2010 trial in that case SynQor alleged that Vicor’s products also infringe (possibly in the context of a lost profits analysis but the complaint doesn’t say). The complaint also alleges that “Vicor has also been informed by a customer that SynQor has alleged that Vicor’s bus converter products infringe the SunQor patents.” This customer goes unnamed, and no further details of this communication are included.
I know the courts have been expanding what qualifies as an “actual case or controversy” for some time, but if you were the judge, would you exercise declaratory judgment jurisdiction in this case? That there appear to have been no communications between the parties bothers me a bit.
Vicor Corp. v. SynQor, Inc., 11-10146-JLT (D. Mass. Jan. 26, 2011)
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