Court rules for Symbol Technologies in patent dispute
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has ordered Proxim Corp. to pay Symbol Technologies $23 million in damages, plus $3 million in interest, stemming from Proxim’s alleged infringement on patents held by Symbol for wireless LAN technology, Symbol announced this week. The award was based on a 6% royalty on products that were determined to have infringed on the patents.
Symbol also announced an agreement to purchase Matrics, Inc.—which manufactures EPC (electronic product code)-compliant RFID (radio frequency identification) systems—for $230 million in cash. Symbol expects the acquisition to dilutes its 2004 earnings per share by 5 to 6 cents.
In other financial news, Symbol announced earnings for second quarter 2004 of $28.8 million—12 cents per share—four times the $6.6 million—3 cents per share—posted in the same quarter last year. Revenues for the quarter were $432.8 million, a 16% gain year over year and the highest quarterly revenues in its history, the company said.