August 28, 2001 The Siemon Co. (www.siemon.com) announced on August 24 that it has settled a lawsuit with Thomas & Betts (T&B—www.thomasandbetts.com). The lawsuit related to Category 7 shielded-connector technology. In its announcement, The Siemon Co. stated that the legal action between the two companies has been dismissed.
"The confidential agreement grants Siemon the right to use and to sublicense intellectual property owned by Thomas & Betts," The Siemon Co. said.
Siemon's Tera connector is a plug-and-socket design that isolates individual contact pairs in fully shielded chambers to form the equivalent of four twinaxial transmission channels in a single company. T&B manufactures the ALL-LAN Interconnection System, a cabling system designed to terminate fully shielded cable. The ALL-LAN hermaphroditic connector is the first to use shielded quadrant technology.
"With this agreement, Siemon has completely resolved this patent dispute," said John Siemon, vice president of engineering of The Siemon Co. "Manufacturers who license and use this technology from us are free to market and sell their Category 7 products anywhere in the world."
"T&B was the first company to obtain intellectual property on these types of connectors," John Siemon continued. "Their continued research has led to new patents that enable even higher performance than their original design. The option for Siemon and our licensees to use this technology for ongoing development expands the potential for achieving higher performance and global market acceptance for this interface."
