The L.S. Starrett Company — patent litigation as defendant

I'll research this company's background and litigation posture.

Let me verify the ownership status and the litigation context.

The L.S. Starrett Company ("Starrett") is an American manufacturer founded in 1880 by Laroy S. Starrett and incorporated in 1929. Its headquarters are in Athol, Massachusetts, where its main plant remains. Long publicly traded on the NYSE under ticker SCX, Starrett was taken private by an affiliate of private-equity firm MiddleGround Capital in an all-cash merger completed June 5, 2024, at $16.19 per share (a deal valued at roughly $122 million). It now operates as a wholly owned MiddleGround subsidiary. Reported size is around 1,500–1,800 employees globally and annual revenue in the $200–260 million range (company/press figures vary). This is an OPERATING COMPANY, not an NPE.

Starrett manufactures precision measuring and cutting tools. Major lines include precision hand tools and gages (micrometers, calipers, height and depth gages, electronic gages, dial indicators, gage blocks, levels, squares); metrology and inspection equipment (optical comparators, vision and laser measurement systems, force and hardness testing); custom engineered granite solutions; and saw/cutting products (band saw blades, hole saws, hacksaw, jig saw and reciprocating blades). Products serve metalworking, aerospace, automotive, construction, medical and general industrial markets, sold through distributors and resellers in North America and over 100 countries. Manufacturing is spread across the U.S., Brazil, Scotland and China.

Patent-litigation posture: Starrett appears in the tracked data solely as a defendant (1 case, 0 as plaintiff) — an operating company on the receiving end of an NPE suit, not an active two-way litigant.

Tracked case: Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. The L.S. Starrett Company, filed in the District of Delaware. Cedar Lane is a Canadian patent-assertion entity (based in Nelson, British Columbia) that has acquired patents — including portfolios originating with Intellectual Ventures — and filed hundreds of infringement suits since 2019, primarily in the Western and Eastern Districts of Texas and the District of Delaware, with a very high settlement rate among terminated cases. Starrett is one of numerous defendants in that campaign; Delaware, rather than E.D. Tex., is the venue here. No merits assessment is implied.