USAmerican LLC of Beverly Hills has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Oakley, Inc. and Motorola, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California alleging that the popular “Razrwire” sunglasses and headset combination jointly marketed by Oakley and Motorola infringes U.S. Patent No. 4,902,120 (“the '120 patent”).
The '120 patent was filed in November 1988 by Frank Weyer, an attorney and engineer, who was annoyed by his earphones falling out while jogging. After the '120 patent issued in February 1990, Mr. Weyer formed a company, American Innovative Products, Inc., to market his invention. Advertising in running magazines and at running events, Mr. Weyer sold several thousand pairs of his sunglasses/earphone product, which were called “Cruisers.” Mr. Weyer also licensed his invention to Virtual I/O, who used the patented earphone mounting system in a virtual reality goggle product called “Iglasses.”
In 1994, Oakley unsuccessfully sued Mr. Weyer's company for patent infringement, alleging that the sunglasses American Innovative Products was using infringed on several Oakley patents. Mr. Weyer, who is a patent attorney, countersued, pointing out that if what Oakley alleged was true, Oakley's patents were invalid. Oakley dropped the case.
