ITC Institutes Patent Enforcement Proceeding on Dental Positioning Appliances
The International Trade Commission instituted a formal enforcement proceeding relating to a consent order that resulted from a patent investigation into certain incremental dental positioning adjustment appliances and methods of producing same (337-TA-562) that was instituted in February 2006 based on a complaint filed by Align Technology, Inc. of Santa Clara, CA (now San Jose, CA).
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In November 2006, a consent order was issued that prohibited the importing, offering for sale, and selling for importation in the U.S. of incremental dental positioning devices and any other articles that infringe the asserted patents or that contain or use the asserted trade secrets. On March 1, 2012, Align filed a complaint for enforcement proceedings, and on March 22 filed a corrected complaint, asserting that the successors and bound officers of the original respondents (ClearCorrect USA of TX.; ClearCorrect Pakistan (Private), Ltd. of Pakistan; and Mudassar Rathore, Waqas Wahab, Nadeem Afrif, and Asim Waheed) are in violation of the November 2006 consent order.
Therefore, the ITC has determined to institute formal enforcement proceedings to determine whether the respondents are in violation of the November 2006 consent order, and what, if any, enforcement measures are appropriate.