In a long anticipated decision, the U.S. District Court of Nevada ruled that 14 patents held by Jerome Lemelson and the Lemelson Foundation are invalid. The patents pertain to bar code readers and machine vision systems.

Lemelson had been granted the patents between 1978 and 1994. The first of the patents had been applied for in the mid-1950s. Chief Judge Philip Pro of Nevada declared that "Lemelson's delay in securing the asserted patent claims is unexplained and unreasonable." Critics claim that Lemelson refiled the patent applications over time to reflect advances in technology.

"Of the five million U.S. patents which were issued from 1914 through 2001, the 13 patents which took the longest to be processed through the system from the date of the original application to final issuance were all held by Jerome Lemelson," says Arthur Stroyd, Jr., counsel for Material Handling Industry of America.

Pro also said the patents were invalid, unenforceable and not infringed. Lemelson, who died in 1997, and then the Lemelson Foundation have for years been assessing end users of the technology a royalty. It is estimated more than $1 billion has been collected.

Neither Lemelson nor the Foundation have ever manufactured data collection devices based on the patents.

The lawsuit was initiated by machine vision supplier Cognex in 1998. In 1999, seven other automatic identification suppliers filed their own suit. Those companies are Accu-Sort, Intermec, Metrologic, PSC, Psion Teklogix, Symbol and Zebra. The two suits were consolidated in 2000. The trial was concluded in January 2003, and the 30-page decision issued in late January of this year.

This is not expected to be the end of the arguments, however. "The Lemelson Foundation will undoubtedly appeal this decision," says Stroyd. "And the stakes are high enough that, if it is willing to hear a further appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court may be the final arbiter of this matter."