Aug-14-2008
Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 15, 2008 -- GW Micro, Inc., a Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company dedicated to providing high quality adaptive technology solutions for blind and visually impaired individuals, announced today that it has received notice of a patent infringement lawsuit brought by Freedom Scientific, Inc., the self-described "world leader in technology-based solutions for people with visual impairments." The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,993,707 for a "Document Placemarker." GW Micro has reviewed the claim and believes it is overreaching and not consistent with what Freedom Scientific told the Patent Office when obtaining its patent. GW Micro intends to defend itself vigorously and expects to prevail in court.
"As many of our users know, our screen reader -- Window-Eyes -- has had the capability of returning to a specific line within a webpage since version 3.1, which was released over nine years ago, well before Freedom Scientific's alleged invention," said Dan Weirich, GW Micro's Corporate President. Weirich went on to note that, "The implication in a recent Freedom Scientific press release that GW Micro is 'benefit[ing] from [Freedom Scientific's] investment at no charge' is simply not accurate nor in line with GW Micro's tradition of success and fair play." Finally, Weirich concluded, "We will aggressively defend both our legal position and our place in the assistive technology community."
Daniel R. Weirich
GW Micro, Inc.
725 Airport North Office Park
Fort Wayne, IN 46825
ph 260-489-3671
www.gwmicro.com
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4 comments
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§ Carlos
said on : 2008-08-15 @ 07:24
"Overreaching" is the perfect term. -
§ Casey Weeks said on : 2008-08-16 @ 11:26
To me, a place marker is a place marker and isn't werth filing a lawsuit over. Should ms file a lawsuit to every browser maker just because they included a feature for bookmarking your favorit sites? Oversighted is indeed the correct turm here.
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§ Jacob Schmude said on : 2008-08-19 @ 11:41
I'm glad you guys are going to defend yourselves. I'm disgusted with what FS has been up to lately. There was a time when they were innovative. That time is long past, apparently, and they're bitter about that. They haven't really innovated since they became FS, actually. Blazie and HJ were innovative. If they really were the world leaders they style themselves, they'd prove it by innovating instead of going after others with legal bovine excrement. Go GW!
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§ Jake said on : 2008-08-20 @ 11:04
Good on you GW Micro! I've been having Internet/email difficulties lately, and I as well as a few others are beginning to question if these problems have anything to do with JAWS hogging up so much memory on my computer. I uninstalled JAWS only, but I'm thinking about removing the other components that have Freedom Scientific written all over them. FS's claim(s) are definitely overreaching and overbearing.
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