United States Supreme Court Affirms Judgment in Favor of Liquid Dynamics in Patent Suit Against Vaughan Pump Co.Additional Infringement Claims Asserted ST. CHARLES, Ill. -- Liquid Dynamics Corp., St. Charles, Illinois St. Charles is a city in Kane and DuPage counties of Illinois, United States, and is roughly 40 miles west of Chicago on Illinois Route 64. According to a 2004 census estimate, the city has a total population of 32,134. , announced that on November 13, 2006, the United States Supreme Court United States Supreme Court: see Supreme Court, United States. rejected the appeal of Vaughan Company, Inc., from a multi-million dollar patent infringement patent infringement n. the manufacture and/or use of an invention or improvement for which someone else owns a patent issued by the government, without obtaining permission of the owner of the patent by contract, license or waiver. verdict entered in favor of Liquid Dynamics in November 2004, following a jury trial in Chicago. Mark Crump, president of Liquid Dynamics, is the inventor of United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Patent No. 5,458,414, covering a proprietary design for mixing systems marketed by Liquid Dynamics under the JetMix[R] trade name. The JetMix[R] system is commonly used in large circular tanks ranging in size from 20,000 gallons to 3 million gallons or more. The patent covers arrangements of jet nozzles which create a unique, substantially helical helical /hel·i·cal/ (hel´i-k'l) spiral (1). hel·i·cal adj. 1. Of or having the shape of a helix; spiral. 2. Having a shape approximating that of a helix. , volume filling flow in large tanks containing liquids and slurries, resulting in major improvements in process efficiency and reduction in operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . The JetMix[R] system has broad application in municipal water and wastewater treatment as well as in industries such as pulp and paper, power generation, petrochemical and many others. Liquid Dynamics originally sued Vaughan, a pump manufacturer, in 2002 after Vaughan hired a former Liquid Dynamics employee and then copied the JetMix[R] design in a 2001 RotaMix installation. The Supreme Court affirmed the holding of the Court of Appeals, which rejected Vaughan's contention that it had not copied. The jury also found willful infringement by Vaughan in 46 additional RotaMix installations. Because of Vaughan's willful infringement, the court also trebled the jury's damage award. In addition to money damages, the Federal District Court in Chicago entered a permanent injunction permanent injunction n. a final order of a court that a person or entity refrain from certain activities permanently or take certain actions (usually to correct a nuisance) until completed. against Vaughan in February 2005, prohibiting further infringement. The first Liquid Dynamics lawsuit against Vaughan addressed 47 RotaMix installations during the period beginning in the year 2000 and ending May 31, 2002. Liquid Dynamics also announced the filing on October 10, 2006, of a second lawsuit against Vaughan, seeking damages for patent infringement in connection with more than 60 additional RotaMix installations between June 2002 and February 2005. |
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