A court dismissal has ended a gas-assisted molding patent infringement lawsuit filed earlier this year by two affiliates of Gain Technologies Inc. against automotive molder ADAC Plastics Inc.
ADAC lawyer Thomas Young said Melea Ltd. and Plastic Molded Technologies Inc. first wanted $200,000, but the two sides ended up reaching a settlement that brought the price down below the cost of continuing the litigation.
Young declined to say how much the final settlement was worth, but he blasted Gain Technologies, which is owned by Michael Ladney.
“This is the end of the road for the Gain/Melea patents. I think they're worn out at this point,” Young said. He added that two of the three patents listed in the lawsuit have expired.
A lawyer for Gain, Robert Tuttle, declined to comment on terms of the settlement, which he said is confidential.
But Tuttle said: “The Gain/Melea patents are alive and well. They're still being enforced.”
Gibraltar-based Melea and Shelby Township, Mich.-based PMT sued ADAC of Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10. Melea holds the patents marketed by Gain, of Shelby Township.
The lawsuit was dismissed on July 6 with prejudice — a legal term that means Gain cannot file a new suit against ADAC on those issues.
Gain charged that ADAC infringed its patents by using gas-assist controllers from Alliance Gas Systems Inc., which stopped making gas-assisted molding equipment in 2004 and sold its patented technologies to Cinpres Gas Injection Ltd., a rival to Gain. Cinpres was not named in Gain's suit.
Tuttle said this marks Gain's final legal action involving Alliance Gas Systems.
ADAC denied infringing on Melea patents, in court documents filed with the suit in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
ADAC lawyer Young said the lawsuit was weak. “I thought the suit was junk and so did the people at ADAC. It was the last suit brought by Melea against a string of injection molding companies just to collect money,” Young said.
ADAC's in-house lawyer, John Shape, declined to comment. A Gain executive did not return a telephone call for this story.
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