WILEN B. WOLLERAU, Switzerland, Dec 8, 2014 – AutoForm Engineering GmbH and Engineering Technology Associates, Inc. have reached a global settlement of their patent disputes1 and entered a consent judgment2 ending a US patent infringement lawsuit initiated by AutoForm against ETA, the company announced today. The lawsuit was part of AutoForm’s efforts to protect its continuous substantial investments in R&D and its innovative solutions.
The respective patents are directed to the addendum design of deep drawing tools, and protect methods used by AutoForm-DieDesigner software. Pursuant to the settlement:
- AutoForm and ETA ended the pending US patent infringement lawsuit by entering a consent judgment.
- ETA agreed to discontinue sale and distribution of its Die Face Engineering (DFE) plug-in for addendum surface generation.
- ETA agreed not to challenge the validity or enforceability of the AutoForm patents, as explained in the consent judgment.
- AutoForm agreed not to sue any ETA customers, distributors or end users that hold existing licenses for the DFE plug-in.
The remaining terms of the parties’ settlement agreement are confidential.
About AutoForm Engineering GmbH
AutoForm offers software solutions for the die-making and sheet metal forming industries along the entire process chain. With 250 employees dedicated to this field, AutoForm is recognized as the leading provider of software for product manufacturability, tool and material cost calculation, die face design and virtual process optimization. All of the Top 20 automotive OEMs and most of their suppliers have selected AutoForm as their software of choice. Besides its headquarters in Switzerland, AutoForm has offices in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, USA, Mexico, Brazil, India, China, Japan and Korea. AutoForm is also present through its agents in more than 15 other countries.
For detailed information please visit www.autoform.com
1 AutoForm brought said action for patent infringement in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan alleging that certain ETA products infringed US. Pat. No. 7,623,939 and US Pat. No. 7,894,929 owned by
AutoForm and directed to a method and software for addendum design for deep drawing tools. 2 available at http://www.patentlaw.ch/downloadbereich/Consent_Judgment.pdf.
