Altair Eyewear, Inc. v. Aspex Eyewear, Inc. et al.
unknown- Docket:
- 07-1407
Listed in the patent record as Altair's cross-appeal, companion/consolidated with No. 07-1380. It was not independently confirmed.
Defendant
Contour Optik, Inc.
1 case as defendant.
- Cases
- 1
- Active
- 0
- 1 closed
- Filed
- —
- Top venue
- Fed. Cir.
- 1 case
Also appears as a plaintiff in 6 cases → View as plaintiff
Company profile
Contour Optik, Inc. is a privately held Taiwanese eyewear manufacturer headquartered at 6 Industrial Fifth Road, Tou Chiau Industrial Park, Chiayi 621, Taiwan. Founded in 1978 by the late George Chao and now managed by his son David Chao, it remains family-owned and has not raised outside funding. Its HKTDC supplier listing reports 501–1,000 employees and annual turnover of US$10–50 million; a third-party patent database lists a far smaller headcount, so size figures are approximate. No public ticker or parent company is disclosed.
Products / operations. Contour designs, manufactures, and exports optical frames, sunglasses, and reading glasses, including OEM/turnkey production for other brands. It is known for magnetic clip-on eyewear, introduced in 1994, and states it holds more than 40 issued U.S. patents and over 120 international patents. Manufacturing is spread across Chiayi (R&D and assembly), Yingtan in Jiangxi province, Shenzhen and Dongguan in China, and a Philippines plant opened in 2023. This is an operating manufacturer, not a shell licensor.
Patent-litigation posture. The tracked data show 3 cases as plaintiff and 0 as defendant. All three were filed jointly with Aspex Eyewear, Inc., a Delaware corporation that acts as Contour's U.S. exclusive licensee and distributor; Aspex and Canada's Chic Optik are Ifergan-family companies. Contour is therefore an operating patent owner asserting its own magnetic-eyewear portfolio, not an NPE, and it is not a target of NPE suits. Venues were the District of Nevada, S.D.N.Y. (transferred to D. Mass.), and S.D. Fla.; none was filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable cases. Aspex/Contour v. E'Lite Optik (D. Nev.) ended with Aspex dismissed for lack of standing as exclusive licensee (Fed. Cir. 2005), leaving Contour's claims. v. Altair Eyewear (S.D.N.Y.) produced summary judgment of non-infringement on the '054, '811, and '896 magnetic clip-on patents, affirmed in relevant part in 2008. v. Zenni Optical (S.D. Fla.) was affirmed at 713 F.3d 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2013), holding the Altair rulings collaterally estopped the Zenni suit.