News

Animatics and Quicksilver Patent Lawsuit Resolved

July 18, 2004 by Jeff Shepard

After more than five years of court battles, beginning with Animatics Corp. (Santa Clara, CA) and QuickSilver Controls Inc., and growing to involve all principals individually as well as 17 QuickSilver distributors, the contested patent case involving Animatics patent and QuickSilver integrated servos has been resolved.

The settlement arose after Animatics received a favorable decision in the patent infringement case before the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Originally, Animatics sued QuickSilver for infringing its patent for a servo motor with an integrated microprocessor controller. The US District Court for the Northern District of California found as a matter of law that the accused QuickSilver products infringed two claims, Claims 32 and 35, of Animatics’ patent and did not infringe three other claims, Claims 26, 28 and 31.

With only damages left, both parties were motivated to settle the case. A settlement was reached that releases all parties, including the distributors. QuickSilver will pay Animatics its reasonable royalty for all of the integrated servos made in the past along with an additional measure of attorney’s fees. Animatics agreed to forsake all other damages in exchange for QuickSilver’s cooperation in paying at least some of the overall losses related to the infringement and litigation. Since the agreement does not include QuickSilver compensating Animatics for all of its legal expenses, Animatics has not given QuickSilver a license to sell integrated servos in the future.