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Lemelson was likely to succeed on his patent infringement claim.
The parties to the Court of Claims lawsuit ultimately reached a
settlement that required the Federal Government to pay $5,000 to
Lemelson. The Federal Government sought indemnification from
Champion.
On May 13, 1985, Lemelson filed a separate lawsuit against
Champion directly, as owner of DeVilbiss, in the U.S. District
Court for the District of Delaware (the Lemelson lawsuit). In
his petition, Lemelson alleged that the manufacture and sale of
the Trallfa robot infringed several of his patents, including the
‘431 patent. The Lemelson lawsuit sought damages for Trallfa
robots that were sold prior to 1986. On August 16, 1989,
Lemelson made an offer to settle the lawsuit for $500,000, which
DeVilbiss rejected.
DeVilbiss retained Mark Curran Schaffer (Schaffer), an
intellectual property attorney, to represent DeVilbiss in the
Lemelson lawsuit. Schaffer reviewed the patents, studied the
patent file histories, performed prior art searches, and compared
Lemelson’s patents with the Trallfa robot. Schaffer concluded
that Lemelson’s patents were not infringed by the Trallfa robot
and that it was unlikely that Lemelson would succeed in proving
infringement. Schaffer communicated his opinion to
representatives of DeVilbiss.
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