SENKO challenges US Conec’s latest court filings in its ongoing patent battle

April 5, 2024
The fiber optic connector vendor said it maintains its position and will address its customer's concerns regarding the dispute.

SENKO has responded to US Conec’s recent lawsuit against the company, which alleges potential patent infringement relating to certain components of SENKO’s VSFF portfolio and a specific MPO feature.

This action is the latest response from US Conec, whom SENKO initially charged in January 2023 with potential infringement of at least seven of SENKO’s VSFF patents on US Conec’s MDC and MMC Connector and Adapter product range.

Later, SENKO expanded the patent infringement claim to include five patents, bringing 12 patents and over 270 claims against US Conec.

SENKO reaffirmed that its VSFF patents, dating back to 2016, pre-date those of US Conec and cover critical design aspects integral to the connector's core functionality.

The company said it “will vigorously defend the exclusion of SN products in a newly filed ITC proceeding mirroring the lawsuit, based in part on its earlier patent filings, and is confident of the outcome.”

SENKO added that US Conec’s recent legal actions have been expanded beyond VSFF connectivity to include a single feature of SENKO’s MPO portfolio. “It is important to note that the allegation made against SENKO concerning MPO connectivity relates only to a very specific feature of one connector type within SENKOs broad and comprehensive MPO portfolio,” SENKO said. “The claim has no impact on SENKO’s ability to continue supplying MPO connectivity into the market. SENKO would like to inform its customers that this action does not affect any of the MPO standard connectors that SENKO has been supplying or the MPO EZ-Way product that SENKO has developed to simplify and accelerate the recent ramp-up in 800G deployments. SENKO will reach out to the few customers who might be affected by the allegation.”

SENKO alleges that US Conec has infringed and continues to infringe its U.S. Patents, including US11307369B2, US11333836B2, US11340413B2, US11415760B2, US10191230B2, US11181701B2, US11061190B2, US11391895B2, US11435535B2, US11585989B2, US11774685B2, and US11809006B2.

US Conec’s latest filing cited SENKO and several other companies. SENKO said it felt necessary to update its customers “to prevent any confusion or concerns that this action may have raised.”  

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