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Wind Industry Profile of
GE News - Amicable settlement reached with General Electric concerning all wind turbine patent disputes
GE News - Amicable settlement reached with General Electric concerning all wind turbine patent disputesMitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and General Electric Company (GE) have reached amicable settlement of all legal actions taken by both parties in the United States relating to alleged infringements of their patents on wind turbines. As a result, all litigation under way relating to wind turbines has been dropped.
1. Overview from initiation of legal action through to final settlement
In February 2008 GE brought a case against MHI before the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC)1 charging that MHI's 2.4 megawatt (MW) variable-speed wind turbines violated two of GE's U.S. patents and thus constituted infringement of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 19302. The two respondents named in the case were Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA)3 and Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Inc. (MPSA)4. Subsequently, in the U.S., GE and MHI both instituted legal proceedings against the other concerning wind turbine patent infringement.
Specifically, they are:
- Procedures related to aforementioned appeal to USITC
- Lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas filed by GE on September 3, 2009
- Lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas filed by GE in February 2010
- Lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida filed by MHI on May 20, 2010
- Lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas filed by MHI on May 20, 2010
The two sides have now agreed, however, to resolve, by amicable settlement, all of their legal disputes concerning wind turbines listed above.
2. Overview of the other party to the settlement
Name: General Electric Company (GE)
Location: Connecticut, U.S.A.
Chairman and CEO: Jeffrey R. Immelt
3. Content of the settlement
MHI and GE have agreed to settle all their legal disputes concerning wind turbines, and auxiliary matters, through a cross-licensing agreement, in which the two companies grant the use of their subjected intellectual property to each other while retaining their own patents. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, MHI and GE have also agreed not to make public the specific content of their settlement.
4. The settlement described above will have negligible impact on MHI's fiscal year 2013 (April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014) earnings.
Notes:
- The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) is an American governmental body that investigates and passes judgments on claims alleging unfair trade practices filed by American industrial enterprises.
- Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 stipulates that in cases when products imported into the United States are suspected of violating intellectual property rights, including patents, and the owner and user of said intellectual property rights in the United States files a claim in the matter, the USITC is stipulated to investigate the matter.
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Inc. (MHIA) is an MHI Group company.
- Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas, Inc. (MPSA) is an MHI Group company that functions as the base for MHI’s power systems operations in the U.S.
- Source:
- Posted by Trevor Sievert, Online Editorial Journalist / By General Electric Staff
- Author:
- General Electric
- Email:
- info@ge-renewable-energy.com
- Link:
- www.ge-renewable-energy.com/...
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