PITTSBURGH - A medical furniture maker is asking a court to stop another manufacturer from claiming patent ownership of one of the plaintiff's power tables.
United Metal Fabricators Inc., of Johnstown, filed a lawsuit June 26 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Midmark Corp., of Versailles, Ohio.
According to the complaint, UMF, which for 59 years has been in the business of making medical furniture and equipment, recently learned that Midmark is "asserting that UMF's 4000-650 exam table series is infringing a patent issued to Midmark" on June 25, 2013. The suit says in March, Midmark sued another company UMF Medical International Inc., for patent infringement.
Although the plaintiff is not the subject of the lawsuit, it and UMF International have made Midmark aware that the company "absolutely had no basis for its infringement claim, which was vaguely alleged as a design claim and UMF's counsel provide side-by-side comparisons of Midmark's patent drawings as compared to photographs of one of UMF's 4000-650 exam tables demonstrating thereby the unfounded nature of the threat," the lawsuit states.
Nevertheless, the suit says, the plaintiff asks the court to declare that UMF is entitled to make and sell the exam table at issue, to issue an injunction against Midmark declaring patent infringement, and to award the plaintiff the court costs and attorney fees associated with this action. United Medical Fabricators is is represented by attorney Vincent J. Barbera of Barbera, Clapper, Beener, Rullo & Melvin in Somerset.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case number 3:15-cv-00174-KRG.