MAY 28, 2008--In a press release today, MVTec Software (Munich, Germany; www.mvtec.com) said that Cognex (Natick, MA, USA; www.cognex.com) has filed a complaint against MVTec and MVTec LLC--the US sales and support center in Boston, MA--and Fuji America Corporation, a US subsidiary of Fuji Machine Mfg. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Boston, MA, USA).

"One of the important values within business is to understand the concept of fair competition," says Olaf Munkelt, managing director of MVTec Software. "Part of these values is to respect intellectual property rights," he adds. "MVTec is ready and committed to defend itself as well as its customers against these claims because we believe these claims to be unfounded. MVTec has spent a great amount of resources over the years to invent, develop, and patent machine-vision technology," he says. "Last but not least we should keep in mind that back in 2003 Cognex withdrew a law suit regarding matching technology against another one of its biggest competitors."

According to the complaint, Cognex alleges that MVTec's product HALCON violates several US patents of Cognex related to matching technology that is one of the core technologies used widely in machine vision. Fuji, as one of the prominent manufacturers of semiconductor equipment, is claimed to infringe the same Cognex US patents because it allegedly uses HALCON in its machines.

Wed May 28 09:59:00 CDT 2008