GE Sues Rival SonoSite Over Compact Ultrasound Patents

General Electric Co. is suing SonoSite Inc. with the allegation that SonoSite's Titan and MicroMaxx products willfully infringed on GE's U.S. patents relating to compact-ultrasound technology.

GE (Fairfield, Connecticut, USA) asked the court for monetary compensation, and an injunction preventing SonoSite (Bothell, Washington, USA) from using the technology. According to the complaint, technologies in question relate to methods for displaying blood flow on ultrasound monitors and to the wireless transmission of data.

A spokesperson for GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, UK), the GE unit competing with SonoSite, declined to comment on the lawsuit, while SonoSite, in a [U.S.] Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulatory filing was said to be ...currently analyzing the validity of these allegations.

According to a report issued by Klein Biomedical Consultants (KBC, New York, New York, USA), out of a total world market for compact ultrasound devices estimated at US$400 Millon in 2006, GE Healthcare's and SonoSite's--whose principal product is compact ultrasound devices--sales are running neck and neck, at $174 Million and $171 Million respectively. In a currently pending case, SonoSite is involved in similar litigation over patents with competitor Zonare Medical Systems (Mountain View, California, USA).


Related Links:
SonoSite Inc.
GE Healthcare
Zonare