3M Suing EnvisionWare for Patent Infringement

A lawsuit alleging patent infringement has been brought by library vendor 3M against competitor EnvisionWare, regarding the development and sales of self-check circulation products and handheld radio frequency identification (RFID) accessories.

Documents submitted to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota contend that “in the mid-1990s 3M began a multi-year, multi-million dollar research and development project to improve library systems technology.” The company then applied for and received a number of patents pertaining to both self-check and RFID technology. 3M then claims that “EnvisionWare is a company that has been in a position to observe 3M’s innovative library systems technology for more than a decade” and that infringing products from EnvisionWare include its LibraryPDA, as well as its self-service circulation systems. The complaint rests on three patents approved between 2001 and 2005.

Both 3M and EnvisionWare said they had no comment pending ongoing litigation. As industry analyst Marshall Breeding noted in a post on Library Technology Guides, no damages have yet been specified, nor has a trial date been set.