Court of Appeals sides with Apple in ColorSync case

For the second time a U.S. court has sided with Apple in the ColorSync patent infringement lawsuit. In an unpublished decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision and dismissed the lawsuit brought by Imatec Ltd.

The lawsuit, first filed on Feb. 13 1998, alleged that Apple’s ColorSync color management software infringed on Imatec’s patents. The case was dismissed on Jan. 24, 2000 when the judge ruled that Imatec didn’t own the patents on which the suit was based and that ColorSync didn’t infringe on these patents in any case.

The day after the decision, Imatec issued a statement indicating their intention to appeal the ruling. “With due respect to the court, the dismissal of our Complaint leads me to question how well the presiding judge understood the highly technical issues involved,” said Dr. Hanoch Shalit, president and CEO of Imatec at the time.

In rendering his decision yesterday Judge Arthur Gajarsa wrote, “having properly concluded that Dr. Shalit did not own the rights to the patent, the district court correctly concluded that both he and Imatec lacked standing to bring this infringement suit.”