IP, Reports & Roadmaps | Aug 03, 2010

Court decision has minimal impact: TIR to present strong evidence of invalidity and non-infringement

Vancouver, BC – TIR Systems Ltd. (TSX: TIR) - The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a decision that the evidence supporting inequitable conduct committed by Color Kinetics during prosecution of its patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office was not sufficient to meet the high burden of proof required for this cause of action.

This litigation, in which Color Kinetics alleges TIR has infringed certain patents in the US, has been ongoing since 2003.  This decision does not affect TIR’s invalidity and non-infringement arguments, nor its intellectual property portfolio, which is not involved in the case and includes ten patents and over 145 patents pending.

Leonard Hordyk, CEO of TIR Systems, stated, “We had hoped this decision would provide an early resolution to what we believe will be a successful conclusion to this litigation. TIR remains focused on presenting the substantial body of evidence we have assembled that demonstrates clear invalidity of Color Kinetics’ patents and the fact that TIR does not infringe them. We remain confident a jury will find the suit brought against TIR to be merely an attempt to stifle fair competition from TIR’s leading technology and innovative products.”

As this decision has minimal impact on its current business, TIR will continue to support its growing consortium of OEM partners developing and launching products based on Lexel®,  as well as manufacturing, selling and supporting its established lighting products.   

About TIR Systems Ltd.
TIR Systems Ltd., a world leader in Solid State Lighting (SSL) technology, is building the foundations for tomorrow’s lighting. TIR developed Lexel® the first, fully integrated Light Emitting Diode (LED) based light source, designed specifically to produce high quality white light essential for mainstream illumination applications. The benefits of Lexel-based products will encourage a more rapid adoption of SSL with Lexel positioned to become a new standard in the global lighting market.

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