May 14, 2014 – In May 2011, the U.S. company Prowess filed a lawsuit against Swedish-based RaySearch at a court in Baltimore. Prowess claimed that RaySearch infringed on a U.S. patent to which Prowess holds an exclusive license. RaySearch believed that there was no infringement and, in addition, that the patent should be invalidated since there was prior art in numerous older publications describing the same methods. RaySearch has now entered into a settlement agreement with Prowess. Under this agreement, RaySearch will pay Prowess a fixed amount spread out over three years and Prowess will drop the lawsuit. Further details of the agreement are confidential.
Even though the settlement takes place in 2014 it will affect the accounts for 2013. The final financial statements in the 2013 annual report will therefore deviate from the financial statements that were presented in the 2013 year-end report on Feb. 13, 2014. Adjusted for the settlement, RaySearch made an operating loss of SEK 25.7 million in 2013 instead of an operating profit of SEK 8.8 million as posted in the 2013 year-end report. The net loss adjusted for the settlement amounts to SEK 20.8 million instead of a net profit of SEK 6.1 million as posted in the year-end report. The full financial statements for 2013 are available in the 2013 annual report.
“The cost of running this case all the way to trial and through a potential appeal process would have been very high. Therefore it makes sense for us to take the full settlement cost now so that we can put this behind us once and for all and focus all our energy on the continued expansion of our business. I would also like to stress that RaySearch’s underlying business is doing well. Excluding costs for legal fees and the settlement we made an operating profit of SEK 31.6 M in 2013,” says Johan Löf, CEO of RaySearch.”
For more information: www.raysearchlabs.com
