December 26, 2020
On December 22, 2020, Canon (1:20-cv-01238) filed suit in the Western District of Texas against Optimum Imaging Technologies LLC, seeking a declaratory judgment of unenforceability of a newly issued patent based on allegations of inequitable conduct before the Patent Office. Canon alleges that the named inventor of the patent improperly represented both that the abandonment of an earlier, related application was unintentional and that the failure to pay related fees was due to “economic constraints”, in response to which the USPTO revived that application. Those representations, according to Canon, render unenforceable the newly issued patent, as well as two others, which Canon addressed in a December 29, 2020 amended complaint in the same case.