Heraeus Precious Metals North America Conshohocken, the U.S. unit of German metals and tech giant The Heraeus Group, is fighting back on the legal and PR front against two patent infringement suits by DuPont.
The North American unit, based in West Conshohocken, Pa., is getting Washington PR support from Edelman as it filed counterclaims this week against DuPont. Heraeus says the suits, involving components of solar cell technology, are meritless and wants a judge to declare a disputed patent invalid.
DuPont first sued Heraeus in September 2011 and in June 2012 announced a second suit against the company and its customer SolarWorld Industries America for allegedly infringing on a patent related to metallization paste used in solar cells in Europe, Japan and China.
“DuPont invests significant resources in scientific innovation to solve global challenges and we protect that knowledge through strong and robust patents,” David Miller, president of DuPont Electronics & Communications, said in filing the June action.
Andy London, global manager for Heraeus’ photovoltaics unit, said his company will continue to produce its paste products and supply them to customers. “And in the interests of ourselves and our customers, we will continue to defend ourselves against unlawful threats,” he said.
Edelman/D.C. this month provided litigation PR support to Beef Products Inc. in its $1.2B suit against ABC.