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Logitech Disputes UEI Lawsuit

Fremont, Calif. – Logitech
International released a statement on Monday disputing the merit of a patent
infringement lawsuit filed by Universal Electronics (UEI) regarding remote
control technology.

According to Logitech’s
statement, UEI filed suit on 17 patents against Logitech

last Friday

.

“Logitech originally
entered into a license agreement with UEI in 2004 for certain UEI patents, to
settle a lawsuit against Logitech Harmony remotes that was filed by UEI after
the independent development of the Harmony remote technology,” Logitech said. “Logitech
declined to renew the license on the same terms because the patents originally
subject to dispute had either expired or were licensed during the patent
application stage and, after the patents were granted, were determined to be
inapplicable to Logitech products.”

Out of the 17 patents,
four were never raised by UEI in the license-renewal discussion, Logitech said,
and three of them are expired. “The remaining 10 patents in the lawsuit include
some that Logitech has determined to be inapplicable to its products and some
that Logitech licensed as patent applications but were determined to be
inapplicable once the patents were granted. Prior to receiving the complaint,
Logitech had already determined that it did not infringe on any valid claim of 10
of the 14 unexpired patents and quickly reached the same conclusion with
respect to the four additional patents.”

Ashish Arora, Logitech
VP and general manager of the digital home business unit, said, “Logitech
respects the intellectual property rights of others, and has a history of
purchasing or licensing patents when needed. However, we are confident that
Logitech does not need a license from UEI. We believe that UEI’s lawsuit is
without merit and we are confident that we will prevail in court.”

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