SAN FRANCISCO – A lawsuit over allegations of patent infringement was filed on Sept. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by SIPCO LLC against defendant El Cerrito-based Aeon Labs LLC, which operates under the brand name Aeotec.
The plaintiff has filed four counts of individual patent infringement suits against the defendant. Many of Aeotec’s products are named in the lawsuit, including “all Z-Wave compliant Home Energy Meter and Switch products made, used, sold, offered for sale, or imported into the United States by Aeon Labs under the Aeotec brand label.”
Also included are Aeotec Home Energy Meter Gen 5, Aeotec Home Energy Meter G2 1 Phase, Aeotec Micro Switch, Aeotec Heavy Duty Smart Switch, as well as numerous other products manufactured and sold by Aeotec.
SIPCO, described as a “small research, development and technology company originally based in Atlanta, Georgia” in the complaint, was founded by T. David Petite in the 1990s. Petite, according to the filing, “invented a large number of wireless control and distribution technology applications.”
Several companies competed to purchase an exclusive license to Petite’s technology for the market known as "smart grid" for use in utility applications in the early 2000s. SIPCO, according to the filing, “retained the rights to the mesh network patents, and for use of the technology of the utility space. It still maintains ownership of the software, firmware, hardware and patent portfolio that resulted from Mr. Petite’s research and development efforts.”
The plaintiff has filed the suit against the defendant regarding alleged infringement of U.S. Patent numbers 6,836,737, titled Systems and Methods for Providing Remote Monitoring of Consumption for a Utility Meter; 8,924,588, titled Systems and Methods for Controlling Communication Between a Host Computer and Communication Devices; 9,430,936, titled Systems and Methods for Monitoring and Controlling Remote Devices; and 8,964,708, titled Systems and Methods for Monitoring and Controlling Remote Devices.
SIPCO is seeking damages “arising out of defendant’s infringement of the ‘737, ‘588, ‘936, and ‘708 patents to SIPCO, together with prejudgment and post-judgment interest” as well as attorneys’ fees.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:18-cv-05713