Garmin Ltd. said it has received a decision from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin as to the remaining claims in its Wisconsin patent litigation against TomTom. While the Court's ruling “reiterated Garmin's complete victory in its defense of TomTom's claims of infringement of three patents,” it terminated Garmin's remaining claims in the case.
In early February of 2006, Garmin Ltd. and Garmin Corporation sued TomTom in Wisconsin alleging that TomTom infringed five patents dealing with certain “ease-of-use” features developed by Garmin engineers. After the Wisconsin lawsuit was filed, TomTom, which does not hold any U.S. patents for technology it developed itself, purchased three U.S. patents from Horizon Navigation, Inc. and then asserted these patents in a counterclaim in the Wisconsin lawsuit. TomTom alleged that over 60 products made by Garmin infringed these three patents and sought substantial damages and a permanent injunction against further sales of these Garmin products.
The parties filed motions for summary judgment in early fall of 2006. In a previous ruling on December 22, 2006, Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that each and every claim asserted by TomTom was not infringed by Garmin. Judge Crabb found that certain of Garmin's claims against TomTom could not go forward, but her ruling did not resolve multiple patent infringement claims asserted by Garmin against TomTom. In her April 24, 2007 ruling, Judge Crabb reiterated that every claim asserted by TomTom was not infringed by Garmin and determined that Garmin's remaining claims against TomTom could not go forward.
Garmin strongly disagrees with Judge Crabb's ruling as to its claims against TomTom. Garmin is assessing available legal options to continue its efforts to protect the innovations developed by Garmin's engineers. In addition, Garmin is pursuing a separate patent infringement action against TomTom in the Eastern District of Texas. The Texas court recently rejected TomTom's attempt to have the litigation transferred out of the Eastern District. Judge Crabb's ruling has no impact on the Texas litigation, which is set for trial in the fall of 2008.
Since its founding in 1989, Garmin has been a leading pioneer and innovator in consumer navigation devices. Garmin recently was named by Forbes magazine as America's best managed company in the field of technology hardware and equipment, and as one of the 400 best publicly traded companies in America. Garmin also recently was selected as an inaugural constituent of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index based on the value of Garmin's patent portfolio. In addition, Garmin was recently named to Wired Magazine's 10th Annual List of the 40 Most Wired Companies in the World, which represents the companies that “dominate their industries and point the way to the future.”
