RealD Wins European Patent Office Decision On Triple-Beam Patent Asserted Against Volfoni In German Lawsuit

European Patent Office's Opposition Division Upholds Another Key RealD Patent for Triple-Beam 3D Cinema Projection Systems

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RealD

Apr 03, 2019, 12:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Visual technology market leader RealD Inc. announced today that the European Patent Office's (EPO) Opposition Division has upheld the validity of another one of the Company's key patents for light-doubling 3D cinema projection systems. As a result, RealD's European patent that covers triple-beam 3D cinema projection systems (EP2846180) remains in full force.

RealD announced on December 18, 2017 the filing of a complaint with the District Court in Düsseldorf, Germany, alleging that Volfoni SAS, Volfoni GmbH and CinemaNext Deutschland Gmbh have infringed three of RealD's European patents by the importation, sale, or offer for sale of the Volfoni SmartCrystal Diamond cinema systems in Germany. In the complaint, RealD requested an injunction banning the sale of the infringing devices and sought financial damages.

To date, the EPO has fully reconfirmed the validity of two of RealD's patents asserted in the German lawsuit and issued a favorable preliminary opinion on the third. The German lawsuit is set for trial in July 2019.

"RealD invests substantial resources to develop products that result in the best possible customer experience. To continue making such investments, we must protect our intellectual property and are delighted that another decision by the EPO has done just that. We look forward to demonstrating to the Düsseldorf court the infringement of our patents by the Volfoni SmartCrystal Diamond systems," said Neil Mothew, RealD's Vice President of Intellectual Property & Legal Affairs.

Globally recognized as the world's visual technology leader, RealD pioneered digital 3D cinema and today has the world's largest 3D cinema platform. RealD's patented light-doubling 3D cinema systems deliver the most light efficiency of any other 3D cinema projection technology, and as a result, provide a superior projected 3D image at a lower operating cost.

About Opposition Proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO)

EPO Opposition Proceedings are post-grant adversarial proceedings in which interested third parties can challenge the validity of all the national parts of a European patent via a single centralized procedure. The decision of the Opposition Division to uphold RealD's EP2846180 as it was originally issued is available online, and is open to an appeal to one of the EPO's Technical Boards of Appeal. The decision of the Opposition Division to maintain RealD's EP2067066 as it was originally issued is available online, and is no longer open to appeal. A favorable preliminary opinion was recently issued by the Opposition Division regarding RealD's EP2469336 patent (available online) for which a final hearing has been scheduled in October 2019.

About RealD Inc.

RealD is a leading global licensor of 3D and other visual technologies. RealD's extensive industry-defining intellectual property portfolio is used in applications and products that enable a premium viewing experience in the theater, the home and elsewhere.

RealD was founded in 2003 and has offices in Beverly Hills, California; Boulder, Colorado; London, United Kingdom; Moscow, Russia; Shanghai, China; Beijing, China; Hong Kong; and Tokyo, Japan. For more information, please visit our website at www.reald.com.

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SOURCE RealD