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>On November 30, 1995 United States District Judge Paul Brown entered an >Injunction in the Cochran v. Uwatec et al Patent Infringement suit. >The complete eleven page Order is public record at the United States >District Court in Sherman, Texas. The following is an excerpt: > >quote >" B. The Sanction in the Instant Case > > 1. An Injunction Prohibiting the Sale of the Aladin > Air X Dive Computer > > In light of Uwatec USA's blatant disregard of this Court's >discovery order, the Court enters the following sanction: > > Uwatec USA is prohibited from selling, marketing, > servicing, distributing, manufacturing, or by any means, > directly or indirectly, introducing into the stream of > commerce in the United States the Aladin Air X Diving > Computer or any diving computer utilizing the ROM Code at > issue in this case or a substantially similar Code. > > The sanction is effective beginning 12:01 a.m. December 11, >1995. The sanction shall be in effect from this time until Uwatec >USA produces the ROM Code or until further order of this Court." >end quote > >Also at issue in the same trial is COCHRAN's complaint of Unfair Trade >Practices such as deceptive and misleading advertising. The formal >trial for these issues is scheduled for July, 1996. > >In a similar issue, DYNATRON AG, the Swiss company that develops >products for and, at least, is closely related to UWATEC AG in >Switzerland, filed an opposition to a similar COCHRAN-owned European >version of the above US patent. In formal proceedings last month in >Munich, Germany, the opposition was rejected and the COCHRAN patent >is being allowed to remain in force. > >At this time, no suit has been filed against UWATEC in Europe as has >been done in the United States. > > I posted the following message to the CIS SCUBA forum. This afternoon I had a nice chat with mike Cochran about whats going on here, so I thought I would pass this along as well. What has happened is this. UWATEC has failed to provide the court with the requested ROM code. As the court has demanded this code for verification, and UWATEC has not responded, the court (read Judge) is rather ticked off. As a result he has issued a restraining order (read injunction from doing business) against UWATEC untill they cough up the ROM code. At this point the case is FAR from being over, but, things are looking pretty good from Cochran's point of view. They feel they have a very clear case of patent infringment and that allowing an independant lab to examine the ROM code from UWATEC will prove that. Should Cochran prevail in this matter (read win the case) there are two possible outcomes. 1. UWATEC is prohibited from selling, marketing, servicing, distributing, manufacturing, or by any means, directly or indirectly, introducing into the stream of commerce in the United States the Aladin Air X Diving Computer or any diving computer utilizing the ROM Code. And UWATEC makes some for of restitution to Cochran for the infringment. or 2. UWATEC and Cochran settle on a royalty payment schedule for all Air-X computers sold. (Personal Oppinion, Cochran will try for the royalty settlement rather than shutting down the Air-X in the USA.) Should Cochran prevail, and UWATEC not come to an agreement with Cochran as to a royalty settlement, then there are some major potential probelms for Air-X owners in the USA, such as sales, service, repair, support, ect... Thus far I am told, UWATEC has been totaly unwilling to work with Cochran on this issue, and this has lead to the current court case. ========================== And much to my surprise recieved this reply.. ========================== Has UWATEC stolen he ROM code of Cochran? I think this is a really absurd question. The code of the AIR-X was developped by Markus Mock and Ernst Voellm of Dynatron AG of Zurich, Switzerland in close cooperation to Prof. Buehlman, also residing in Zurich. It contains highly sophisticated data transfer and decompression algorithms, protected by a plurality of patents. Cochran has demanded that this ROM CODE should be handed out to his attorneys in order to ascertain whether one of his patents, acquired from the Australian Comerford is infringed. In this patent, which is not infringed by Uwatec a wireless transmission of data to a display is protected without specifying the type of transmission. The European Patent Office has issued a decision on November 23, 1995, in which the parallel European patent was partly invalidated and now only protects the wireless transfer of data to a display, integral with or attached to a divers face mask (head up display). The ALADIN Air-X is not covered by this patent. I think there are two important points: 1. the injunction against Uwatec USA has been stayed by the court. 2. Uwatec USA could not produce the ROM code, because it is not in the possession, custody or control of Uwatec USA or Uwatec AG. Dr. Michael Wallinger Uwatec's European Patent Attorney Christopher M. Parrett, President, Abysmal Diving Inc. Makers of ABYSS, Advanced Dive Planning Software. 6595 Odell Place, Suite G. Boulder CO, 80301 Ph, 303-530-7248, Fx, 303-530-2808 ftp://abysmal.com/users/abysmal http://www.emi.net/gulfstream/abyss/abyss.html
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