The US District Court of the Southern District of Texas has granted a requestfrom ClearCorrect LLC, Houston, to stay the federal patent infringement case filed by competitor Align Technology Inc, San Jose, Calif, the maker of Invisalign.
The federal case, filed in February 2011, alleges ClearCorrect infringes several of Align’s patents. ClearCorrect has maintained from the outset that it does not infringe any of Align’s valid intellectual property and countersued in response, asking the Court to declare the claims in Align’s patents invalid.
In May 2012, ClearCorrect filed a motion to have the case stayed due to overlapping complaints filed by Align to the US International Trade Commission. Despite Align’s objections, the US District Court granted the motion in ClearCorrect’s favor, effectively stopping the federal case indefinitely and, according to ClearCorrect, virtually guaranteeing the continued unrestricted operation of the company’s US-based manufacturing facility for the foreseeable future.
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