On July 13, 2009, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a press release announcing that it voted to institute an investigation of Certain Machine Vision Software, Machine Vision Systems, And Products Containing Same (337-TA-680).

The investigation is based on a May 28, 2009 complaint filed by Cognex Corp. of Natick, Massachusetts and Cognex Technology & Investment Corp. of Mountain View, California.  As we explained in our May 29 post, the complaint alleges violations of section 337 in the importation into the U.S. and sale of certain machine vision software, machine vision systems, and products containing same that infringe certain claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,016,539; 7,065,262; and 6,959,112.

The ITC has identified the following as respondents in this investigation:

• MVTec Software GmbH of Germany;


• MVTec LLC of Cambridge, Massachusetts;


• E. Zoller GmbH & Co. KG of Germany;


• Zoller, Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan;


• Fuji Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. of Japan;


• Fuji America Corp. of Vernon Hills, Illinois;


• Omron Corp. of Japan;


• Resolution Technology, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio;


• Subtechnique, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia;


• Visics Corp. of Wellesley, Massachusetts;


• Daiichi Jitsugyo Viswill Co., Ltd. of Japan;


• Daiichi Jitsugyo (America), Inc. of Wood Dale, Illinois;


• Amistar Automation, Inc. of San Marcos, California;


• Techno Soft Systemnics, Inc. of Japan;


• IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH of Germany;


• IDS Imaging Development Systems, Inc. of Woburn, Massachusetts;


• YXLON International GmbH of Germany;


• YXLON International, Inc. of Mogadore, Ohio


• Rasco GmbH of Germany;


• Delta Design, Inc. of Poway, California;


• Multitest Elektronische Systeme GmbH of Germany; and


• Multitest Electronic Systems, Inc. of Santa Clara, California.

On July 13, 2009, Chief ALJ Paul J. Luckern issued a notice indicating that ALJ Carl C. Charneski will handle this investigation.

Also, according to the Notice of Investigation, Kevin Baer of the Office of Unfair Import Investigations is the Investigative Attorney assigned to handle this investigation.