ZENON’s Position Further Strengthened by Recent Court Ruling

The legal battle between ZENON and US Filter continues as announces another favorable court ruling. On Oct. 31, 2005, the court rejected several of US Filter’s arguments for summary judgment. ZENON and US Filter have mutually agreed to dismiss their cases relating to the Œ319 patent, allowing both sides to appeal the court’s earlier rulings. This paves the way for ZENON to continue its infringement case against US Filter based on its Œ652 patent following the Œ319 appeal.

This ruling combined with the May 2005 ruling where the court also ruled in ZENON’s favor, has strengthened ZENON’s position for an eventual injunction against certain US Filter products.

“US Filter’s attempts to invalidate our patent claims have all failed,” said Andrew Benedek, ZENON chairman and CEO. “This most recent ruling only serves to reaffirm and solidify ZENON’s patents and in particular the Œ652 patent that is the grounds of further legal action against them. This most recent decision takes us one step closer to resolving the issues in ZENON’s favor.”

In October 2003, ZENON initiated a patent infringement lawsuit against US Filter, seeking damages and an injunction to stop the sale, manufacture and use of certain of US Filter’s immersed membrane products. In the course of the proceedings in November 2004, the trial court issued a ruling involving an interpretation of the wording in the Œ319 patent, which ZENON said it would appeal at the appropriate time.

In January 2005, ZENON filed a further action against US Filter alleging infringement of its Œ652 patent, relating to an apparatus for withdrawing permeate. This is from the same patent family as the Œ319 patent but does not contain the same limitations as those involved in the Œ319 patent.

Source: ZENON