Opto Electronics Co., Ltd.

1 case as defendant.

Cases

Active

1 closed

Filed

1986

Top venue

S.D. New York

1 case

Company profile

I'll research this company, starting with the case name and the company name.

Let me verify the current ownership status (the Acer/Esquarre investment announced for early 2026).

Opto Electronics Co., Ltd. (OPTOELECTRONICS CO., LTD.) — Company Profile

Overview. Opto Electronics Co., Ltd. — now styled OPTOELECTRONICS CO., LTD. (株式会社オプトエレクトロニクス) and marketed under the brand "Opticon" — is a Japanese developer and manufacturer of automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) equipment, headquartered in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture. It was founded in December 1976 by Masami Tawara and has been listed in Japan since 2004, now on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard Market (code 6664). In November 2025 Acer Inc. (~38%) and Esquarre Vision Limited (~20%) announced an investment expected to close in early 2026; current market data describe the company as Acer-affiliated. Sources put consolidated headcount at roughly 160–175. For the fiscal year ended November 2025 it reported net sales of ¥6,772 million and an operating loss of ¥254 million.

Products / operations. It designs optics, electronics, and software in-house and sells: handheld, presentation, and fixed-mount barcode scanners (1D laser/CCD and 2D CMOS imager); 1D/2D scan module engines and embedded scanners for OEM/kiosk integration; data collectors and rugged handheld terminals; and electronic shelf labels (ESL) plus digital signage. Customers concentrate in retail/POS, logistics and warehousing, manufacturing, and healthcare. Manufacturing and sales run through Hokkaido Denshi Kogyo (Japan), Opticon Sensors Europe B.V. (Netherlands), and Opticon, Inc. (Renton, Washington, USA).

Patent-litigation posture. An operating company, not an NPE. In the tracked data it appears once, as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases) — a competitor patent suit rather than a patent-assertion-entity campaign.

Notable case. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc. and Opto Electronics, filed in the S.D.N.Y. on November 14, 1986, and appealed to the Federal Circuit (No. 90-1409; 935 F.2d 1569 (1991)). Symbol, a barcode-scanner maker, alleged Opticon's MSH-840/850/860 laser scanners infringed three Symbol scanning patents; Opticon counterclaimed for invalidity and unenforceability. The district court found infringement, and the Federal Circuit affirmed. The decision is frequently cited on expert testimony under Fed. R. Evid. 705 and on obviousness-type double patenting.

Sources: Acer press release (Nov. 28, 2025); opto.co.jp corporate outline; Opticon.com; TSE/EDINET filings; Macnica and Yahoo! Finance company data; CourtListener (935 F.2d 1569).

Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc. et al.

judgment for plaintiff, affirmed on appeal

Docket:: 86-8736
Court:: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; appeal to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (No. 90-1409)
Filed:: 1986-11-14

Patents:4409470 4387297 4593186

π Symbol Technologies, Inc.Δ Opticon, Inc.Δ Opto Electronics Co., Ltd.

Symbol Technologies sued Opticon, Inc. and Opto Electronics for infringement of U.S. patents 4,387,297, 4,593,186, and 4,409,470. After a bench trial, the district court found liability for Symbol, holding the '297 and '186 patents not invalid or unenforceable and infringed, and finding that the MSH-840 device infringed claims 1-5, 27, 31, 33, 50-54 and 56-62 of the '470 patent; the MSH-850 and MSH-860 infringed only the '297 and '186 patents. The Federal Circuit affirmed at 935 F.2d 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1991).