Federal Appeals Court Affirms Injunction Against Martin

The long-running stand-off between Vari-Lite International and Martin Professional has come to something of a temporary conclusion following the affirmation by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of an injunction issued by the United States District Court on September 2, 1999 against Martin Gruppen A/S and Martin Professional A/S. As we've reported previously, the injunction prohibits Martin from manufacturing, selling or hiring the Martin MAC 600s, MAC 500s and MAC 300s, and also extends to the Case series controller when sold in conjunction with any of the MAC units. Martin had already appealed against the decision in a separate hearing when it filed a motion asking the District Court to lift the injunction in July 2000, the date when Martin claimed the patent would expire. The Court rejected Martin's claim and ruled that the patent held by Vari-Lite did not expire until March 2001.

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