ClearCorrect Holdings, LLC (commonly ClearCorrect) is a U.S. orthodontic manufacturer headquartered at 21 Cypress Blvd., Round Rock, Texas (north of Austin). It was founded in 2006 by dentist Dr. Willis Pumphrey and operated as a privately held company until October 2017, when Switzerland-based Straumann Group (SIX: STMN) acquired all outstanding shares of ClearCorrect Holdings, Inc. and subsidiaries for total consideration of approximately USD 150 million. At acquisition ClearCorrect reported roughly 200 employees and 2016 sales of about USD 32 million; it operates today as a brand and business unit within the Straumann Group's orthodontics segment.
Products and operations. ClearCorrect designs, manufactures and supports clear-aligner tooth-correction systems — transparent, removable thermoplastic aligners used to treat malocclusion as an alternative to fixed braces. Clinicians submit intraoral scans or impressions; ClearCorrect produces a digital treatment plan, 3D-prints progressive models, and fabricates and ships the aligner series. Product/treatment lines referenced in its own materials and press include the Flex and Unlimited treatment options, retainers, and aligner material marketed as ClearQuartz. It also runs clinician training and education (Ortho Campus, ClearCorrect Clinic app). Manufacturing is centered in Round Rock, with additional production lines added in Germany and the U.S. and treatment-planning/manufacturing sites in China.
Patent-litigation posture. ClearCorrect is an operating company, not a patent assertion entity. In the tracked data it appears in 2 cases, both as defendant and zero as plaintiff: Align Technology, Inc. v. ClearCorrect, Inc. et al., filed 2011-02-28 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Both records reflect the same underlying dispute between ClearCorrect and its larger clear-aligner competitor Align Technology.
Notable case context. The Align v. ClearCorrect litigation ran for years, spanning U.S. and Brazilian invalidity challenges by ClearCorrect, and predated Straumann's ownership. In March 2019 the parties settled: ClearCorrect agreed to pay Align USD 35 million, withdrew its patent-invalidity assertions in the U.S. and Brazil, and Align dropped all pending infringement litigation. Straumann indicated the settlement amount was largely provisioned for in the acquisition agreement and expected a one-time expense of about CHF 8 million; the settlement also contemplated a letter of intent for Align's iTero intraoral scanner within the Straumann/ClearCorrect digital workflow. I found no other tracked litigation for this entity.