Note on the record: the database entry "C. Harry Knowles" is an individual, not a corporation. It appears because he was named personally as a co-defendant in the one tracked suit.
Company overview. Carl Harry Knowles (1928–2020) was an American physicist, inventor, and entrepreneur, and the founder, longtime chairman, and former CEO of Metrologic Instruments, Inc., headquartered in Blackwood, New Jersey. Metrologic was incorporated in 1968 and was a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: MTLG) before being taken private in 2007 by an investor group led by Francisco Partners and then acquired by Honeywell International for approximately $720 million in 2008. Knowles himself held no ticker or corporate ownership status in the database record; he was an individual officer, director, and shareholder, and died on January 7, 2020, in Medford, New Jersey.
Operations. Metrologic designed, manufactured, and sold data-capture hardware and software: hand-held laser bar-code scanners, linear and omnidirectional laser scanners, fixed-position and in-counter (mini-slot) scanners, area imagers, and rugged mobile computers, sold in more than 110 countries. Reported revenue was roughly $246 million in 2007, and the company employed more than 1,500 people at its peak. Knowles was named on roughly 400 U.S. patents spanning transistors (including the 2N2222 "star transistor"), lasers, and bar-code scanning; the Metrologic patent estate exceeded 600 patents. He retired from the company in 2006–2007.
Patent-litigation posture. This is an operating company and its founder on the receiving side: one tracked case, as defendant, and zero as plaintiff. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey — the parties' home venue, not a plaintiff-friendly out-of-district forum such as the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable case. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Metrologic Instruments, Inc. et al. (D.N.J., filed January 26, 1988) alleged that Metrologic's Series '90 hand-held laser scanners infringed Symbol's '297 and '186 patents. Knowles was named individually because he personally conceived the Series '90 scanners and solicited customers for them; he had also testified on behalf of Opticon against Symbol in related earlier litigation. Metrologic and Symbol were long-running competitors and later litigated in both directions. No characterization of the merits is made here.