Cognex Receives Settlement

Cognex Corporation (CGNX - Analyst Report) recently accepted a settlement offer from Yxlon International GmbH and its U.S. subsidiary in a dispute regarding Multitest's importation and sale of equipment containing HALCON machine vision software.

Cognex has alleged in complaints filed with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in federal court in Massachusetts that HALCON software, marketed by MVTec Software GmbH, infringes on at least three Cognex machine vision patents. The ITC is investigating 20 companies for violating Cognex patents by selling, importing and using MVTec products that contain machine vision technology invented and patented by Cognex.

A prior settlement with Multitest Electronische Systeme GmbH was announced on Sep 8, 2009.

Headquartered in Massachusetts, Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets machine vision systems.

Other terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Management added that the company had invested over $100 million in R&D to develop its leading edge technology and will continue to take a very strong stand to protect its patents whenever the company discovers infringement.

Last month, the company reported weak results for the second quarter of 2009, due to a sharp slowdown in customer demand in the past few months.

Nevertheless, the rate of decline slowed and order rates stabilized a bit. The recent cost cutting measures undertaken by the management is expected to improve profitability in the coming quarters.