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SAES says Aeronex patent claims are "frivolous"

Rival gas purifier manufacturers SAES Getters and Aeronex continue to argue over their ammonia purification products.
SAES Getters SpA an Italian manufacturer of gas purifiers, and its US subsidiary SAES Pure Gas have informed their rival Aeronex that they believe that patent infringement claims made by Aeronex are frivolous. The case concerns ammonia purification products manufactured by the companies.

SAES originally filed suit against Aeronex charging that Aeronex’s line of ammonia purifiers infringed its US patent no. 5,716,588. SAES later added claims of false advertising and unfair competition due to Aeronex’s misrepresentations concerning their ammonia purifiers (see SAES sues Aeronex for false advertising).

In August 2002, Aeronex filed a countersuit claiming that SAES' ammonia purification products infringe on Aeronex's US patent no. 6,241,955 (see Aeronex files to sue SAES for patent infringement).

SAES claims that Aeronex's infringement claim against the '955 patent is frivolous, adding that the '588 patent was filed over three years prior to Aeronex's '955 patent application date.

"We were quite astounded by Aeronex's claim of patent infringement," remarked Tim Johnson, Business Area Manager for Purification Systems for SAES Pure Gas. "First Aeronex copied our product, then they asserted that our product infringed their 'improvement' patent. We pointed out to Aeronex that our product was on sale over one year before the filing of their patent and thus it was logically impossible that our product was infringing that patent. Nonetheless, they continue to assert that their patent is both valid and infringed by our product. If they continue to pursue these frivolous claims, it is quite likely that we will be seeking judicial sanctions against them at the appropriate time.”

SAES has recently succeeded in obtaining a greatly accelerated schedule from the Court and expects to resolve these issues quickly. "We are completely confident that SAES will prevail on our patent infringement claims against Aeronex, our claims against Aeronex of false advertising, and our assertion that Aeronex's patent infringement claims against SAES are not only wrong, but are completely frivolous," said Johnson.

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