IRT Charges Infringement on X-Ray System Patent

A team of executives who left IRT Corp. in 1986 to form their own company allegedly used IRT’s technology to manufacture a competing automated X-ray inspection device, according to a patent infringement suit filed by IRT Thursday in U. S. District Court in San Diego.

The suit, which seeks $3.25 million in damages and an unspecified amount in punitive damages, aims to keep the new company, Four Pi Systems, from using what IRT described as a patented device.

“They are violating our patent technology in the production of their machine,” IRT President and Chief Operating Officer John Battin said Thursday.

Repeated attempts to reach Four Pi President and Chief Executive Robert Corey were unsuccessful.

Four Pi recently developed an X-ray inspection system that gives manufacturers a three-dimensional look at possible flaws in solder joints of printed circuit boards used in most computers and electronic equipment. IRT’s X-ray inspection equipment uses a two-dimensional system to assess circuit board solder joints.

In 1986, five IRT executives, including Corey, left the financially troubled company and formed Four Pi Systems. Four Pi last month reportedly won a five-year, $30-million contract to build the complex machines for a Japanese industrial electronics firm.

Four Pi, which operates out of a 23,000-square-foot building in Rancho Bernardo, has about 60 employees. San Diego-based IRT employs about 150.

IRT, which endured a period of financial turmoil, Wednesday reported its first profitable quarter in three years.