Companies Settle Free-Form PAL Patent Infringement Suit

DALLAS— Essilor, VSP Optics Group, Younger Optics and Indizen Optical Technologies (IOT) have resolved a patent infringement lawsuit involving free-form progressive lens designs.   Essilor filed suit against VSP, Younger and IOT—a Barcelona-based lens design firm owned by Younger—on Feb. 22, 2013 in the Texas Eastern District Court, as reported by VMail. Essilor's suit claimed that the three other companies infringed on U.S. patent 6149271, which is assigned to Essilor and involves progressive addition lenses and processes for making progressives. The complaint alleged that IOT developed a lens design software called IOT Futura, and Younger Optics provided semi-finished lenses, both of which help in producing VSP's Unity PLxpression lenses.   See more