GSI Lumonics to Pay Damages of $13.1 Million in ESI Lawsuit

A federal court jury ordered Watertown, MA-based General Scanning Inc. (Watertown, MA) to pay $13.1 million in damages to Electro Scientific Industries (ESI; Portland, OR) for infringing on that company's US patent #5,265,114, further concluding that the infringement was willful (see ESI Files Patent Suit Against General Scanning). Last fall, General Scanning merged with Lumonics Inc. (Kanata, ON) to form GSI Lumonics (Kanata, ON), which has inherited the lawsuit.

Late last week the jury decided that one of the two patents asserted against General Scanning, U.S. Patent No. 5,473,624 was invalid but upheld the validity of the other (see GSI Lumonics Consolidation Follows Merger, Patent Battle Ends, ESI Patent Declared Valid by Court). According to a company statement, General Scanning believes the '114 patent is invalid for the same reasons the '624 patent was judged invalid and will appeal the decision.

Based on current product developments within GSI Lumonics and anticipated changes in the processes used in the manufacture of memory devices, GSI Lumonics does not foresee any long-term impact on its memory repair systems business.

GSI Lumonics was formed on March 22, 1999 through a merger between General Scanning and Lumonics (see General Scanning and Lumonics to Merge).