Defendant
4 cases as defendant.
Company overview. Align Technology, Inc. ("Align") is a publicly traded global medical device company (Nasdaq: ALGN), founded in March 1997 and headquartered at 410 North Scottsdale Road, Tempe, Arizona. It is not a subsidiary and has no parent. Align reports roughly 21,000 employees worldwide and FY2024 total revenues of approximately $4.0 billion, with an Americas regional headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, EMEA headquarters in Rotkreuz, Switzerland, and APAC headquarters in Singapore (Align 10-K, FY2024). Market capitalization has recently been reported in the low-teens billions of dollars.
Products / services. Align designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign® System of clear aligners for treating malocclusion, Vivera™ retainers, iTero™ intraoral scanners and services, and exocad™ CAD/CAM software for dental labs and practitioners. It operates two reported segments: Clear Aligner (~81% of FY2024 revenue) and Imaging Systems and CAD/CAM Services (~19%). Products are sold largely through a direct sales force to orthodontists, general dental practitioners, dental labs, and dental support organizations. Align is an operating company, not a non-practicing entity, and holds a substantial patent portfolio (roughly 900+ active US patents per its 2024 fact sheet).
Patent-litigation posture. Align is primarily an enforcing plaintiff, consistent with the case data (18 plaintiff vs. 4 defendant appearances). Its suits target rival clear-aligner and dental-scanning competitors, and it has repeatedly used Section 337 actions at the U.S. International Trade Commission alongside district court and Federal Circuit appeals. It is not a frequent target of NPE suits in this data set; its four defendant-side appearances stem from competitor disputes (Ormco, ClearCorrect) rather than patent-assertion entities. Cases appear in the Central District of California, Northern District of California, District of Delaware, Southern District of Texas, the ITC, and the Federal Circuit — not concentrated in the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable cases. Prominent tracked matters include Align v. Ormco (C.D. Cal., 2003), Align v. OrthoClear (ITC, 2006), the long-running Align v. ClearCorrect litigation at the ITC, S.D. Tex., and Federal Circuit (including appeals following the 2014 ClearCorrect decision), Align v. SmileCareClub (N.D. Cal., 2015), and Align v. 3Shape A/S (D. Del., 2017). These reflect Align's enforcement focus on clear-aligner manufacturing and intraoral scanning technology.
ClearCorrect petitioned for inter partes review of claims 1, 2, 9, and 10 of the '037 patent on obviousness grounds. The Board found the claims unpatentable on March 24, 2017, but the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded, and the proceeding was later terminated by settlement.
Appeal from the permanent injunction in the Ormco v. Align district court case. The Federal Circuit reversed, holding U.S. 6,398,548 claims 10 and 17 invalid as obvious and U.S. 6,554,611 claims 1-3 and 7 invalid.
Ormco sued Align Technology in the Central District of California for infringement of orthodontic patents; the Federal Circuit noted that U.S. 5,431,562 was a parent of the asserted patents but was not asserted in this suit. The asserted patents were the '444, '861, '243, and '432; after summary judgment, appeals, and a 2009 jury verdict on the '444 patent, the case ultimately resolved in Align's favor on the asserted Ormco claims.
Federal Circuit appeal from the Central District of California case. The court affirmed summary judgment of noninfringement and nonenablement as to '432 claims 1, 9, and 10, reversed as to '444 claims 37–40, 45, 69 and remanded, and affirmed invalidity of '548 claims 1–3 and 11–13.