October 14 , 2004

NORCO, California -- The federal district court in Madison, Wisconsin recently ruled in a suit brought by AVID Identification Systems, Inc., that certain products used and distributed by Pethealth Services (USA) Inc. infringe a patent owned by AVID. AVID and Pethealth settled the remaining portions of the case.
Judge John C. Shabaz Order ruled: “IT IS ORDERED that Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment of infringement is GRANTED…”, and “IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that defendant’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement is DENIED.”
“We anticipate that this ruling will help validate the 125 kHz based microchip technology widely and commonly used in the U.S. for pet identification.” said AVID founder Hannis L. Stoddard III, D.V.M., “AVID believes that the U.S. pet microchipping and recovery systems were jeopardized recently by several reckless attempts to introduce an incompatible 134.2 kHz based microchip technology.”
AVID, a pioneer in radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology since 1985, is seeking to prevent Pethealth from making, using, selling, or inducing the wrongful use of infringing products. AVID has eighteen U.S. patents and corresponding foreign patents that cover its advances in RFID scanner and microchip transponder technology.
The AVID RFID system uses a scanner to read the identification code in a microchip transponder. Microchips are used to identify and trace animals and inanimate objects around the world. RFID is the emerging technology for many enhanced applications including; security access control, supply chain management, car immobilizers, automotive speed passes, counterfeit protection, asset management and inventory control.
Chadd Taylor of Kirkland & Ellis and lead litigation counsel for AVID in this case said, “This is a strong step towards validating the hard work that AVID has put into developing this technology. AVID will continue to aggressively protect its valuable intellectual property.”
The Wisconsin ruling is not the first to vindicate AVID’s intellectual property rights. On June 4, 2004, United States Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of AVID, against infringers Global ID Systems, Inc. and Douglas Hull. The defendants had been found liable for unfair competition, trademark infringement and patent infringement. The infringement was ruled to be willful and unexcused, which doubled the damages awarded to AVID. David B. Abel of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey was the successful lead litigator in the Global ID case.
In a separate patent infringement case, in May of this year, AVID filed suit in East Texas against Philips Electronics North America Corp., Medical Management International, Inc. dba Banfield the Pet Hospital, Datamars, Inc. and others, related to AVID’s scanning and microchipping technology. AVID is represented by Fish & Richardson P.C. in this matter.
Advising AVID is Professor Mark A. Lemley, William H. Neukom Professor of Law, Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology, of counsel Keker & Van Nest LLP.

For further information, please contact:
Dr. Dan Knox , Director Companion Animal Field Operations, 314.487.5842, Avidsaveslives@AvidID.com
Loran Hickton, Salmon Creek Public Relations Inc., 360.571.5560, lhickton@salmoncreek.com

For more info about AVID, visit www.avidid.com
For more info about Fish & Richardson, visit www.fr.com
For more information about Kirkland & Ellis, visit www.kirkland.com
For more information about Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, visit www.ssd.com
For more information about Keker & Van Nest, visit www.kvn.com

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