Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
failed to persuade a U.S. judge that General Electric Co.
infringed its patent on wind turbine technology.
The U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida ruled on Feb. 8
that Mitsubishi Heavy doesn’t get anything on its claim of
infringement and General Electric won its counterclaim for
judgment of non-infringment, according to a posting from court
clerk Sheryl Loesch. The ruling upheld a July 5 decision in
favor of General Electric that eliminated a need for a trial.
The interpretation of the patent claims rendered in the
court’s judgment “has too narrowly interpreted the patent’s
scope,” Mitsubishi Heavy said in a statement yesterday. The
company has the option to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to the statement.
Mitsubishi Heavy, based in Tokyo, sued Fairfield,
Connecticut-based General Electric in 2010 claiming infringement
of a patent which applies to technology to reduce the burden on
a wind turbine by controlling the pitch angle of the blades in
accordance with the blade rotation angle and other factors.
“Mitsubishi Heavy will quickly issue notification if
there’s any progress that merits disclosure,” Hideo Ikuno, a
spokesman for the company, said today by phone.
The case is Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. v. General
Electric Co., 10-cv-812, U.S. District Court for the Middle
District of Florida (Orlando).
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
