Patlex Signs 7 New Pacts Involving Laser Patent

Patlex Corp. in Chatsworth said Du Pont, Textron and five other companies agreed to pay licensing royalties for their use of laser technology developed by Gordon Gould, Patlex’s vice chairman.

The other companies are Raytheon, Owens-Corning, ERA Systems, Lee Laser and NEC of Japan. Patlex said the NEC agreement also means that a patent-infringement suit filed against NEC by Patlex will be dropped.

Overall, the new agreements will provide Patlex with an initial payment of about $900,000, plus royalties based on future sales and/or use of the Gould technology, which is covered by three main patents.

For nearly 30 years, Gould’s right to those patents was challenged by the U. S. Patent Office and laser manufacturers. But Gould, with financial and legal help from Patlex, has secured all of the patents in the past year. Patlex receives 64% of the royalties from the patents; Gould gets 20%, and Refac Technology, a major Patlex stockholder, gets 16%.