Corning Inc. and Fibercore Settle Lawsuit

CORNING, N.Y., Oct. 13 -- Corning Inc. has settled the patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Fibercore Ltd. in December 1998. In the suit, Corning alleged that Fibercore was infringing upon two of Corning's patents: US Patent No. 4,339,173, entitled Optical Waveguide Containing P₂O₅ and GeO₂, which pertains to optical fibers with P₂O₅ and GeO₂ in the fiber core; and US Patent No. 4,478,489, entitled Polarization Retaining Single-Mode Optical Waveguide, which concerns polarization-maintaining fibers.
Both parties signed a consent judgment agreeing that the patents are enforceable and not invalid, and that certain fiber sold by Fibercore in the US did fall within the scope of, and infringed upon, patent number 4,478,489. As part of the judgment, it was also agreed that Fibercore did not admit to infringing upon patent number 4,339,173 in any way. Corning has given Fibercore license to sell HiBi polarization-maintaining fibers under patent number 4,478,489 and phosphorus-containing DF fibers under patent number 4,339,173. Additional terms of the settlement were not disclosed.