Court Upholds Verdict Against GSI

The US District Court for the Northern District of California has denied a request by General Scanning Inc. for a new trial concerning a patent infringement dispute with Electro Scientific Industries Inc. of Portland, Ore.

The dispute centered on General Scanning's manufacture and distribution of memory repair systems equipped with 1.3-µm lasers.

In March, General Scanning merged with Lumonics Inc. to form GSI Lumonics Inc., based in Kanata, Ontario, Canada.

In April, the court ordered GSI Lumonics to pay $13 million to Electro Scientific and entered a permanent injunction against the production and sale of the systems. GSI Lumonics has announced that it plans to appeal the rulings.

According to a prepared statement from GSI Lumonics, the court ruled against Electro Scientific's request for increased damages and attorneys' fees. The court also affirmed the jury's decision to invalidate one of the two patents asserted by Electro Scientific.