X-Rite, Inc. (commonly "X-Rite," and widely marketed alongside its Pantone subsidiary) is a color-measurement and color-management technology company founded in December 1958 and headquartered at 4300 44th St. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was publicly traded (NASDAQ: XRIT) until Danaher Corporation acquired it in May 2012 for an enterprise value of roughly $625 million. In September 2023, Danaher spun off its Environmental and Applied Solutions segment as Veralto Corporation, which is now X-Rite's parent. X-Rite has reported roughly 800+ employees across about 11 countries; as a private subsidiary it does not publish standalone revenue, though press coverage put its 2011 revenue near $237 million.
Products / operations. X-Rite designs and manufactures hardware, software, and color standards for measuring, formulating, and communicating color and appearance. Its instrument lines include handheld and benchtop spectrophotometers, multi-angle and spherical spectrophotometers, colorimeters, densitometers, spectrodensitometers, and sensitometers, plus Macbeth-branded lighting/viewing booths. Software covers color QC and formulation, and the company owns the Pantone color-standard business (acquired 2007) plus Munsell Color (via its 2006 Amazys/Gretag–Macbeth acquisition). It serves printing, packaging, photography, graphic design, automotive, paints, plastics, textiles, dental, and medical customers, and in 2024 acquired Colorware B.V. (MeasureColor). X-Rite is an operating company, not a licensor or litigation vehicle.
Patent-litigation posture. The case data shows a single tracked matter, with X-Rite named solely as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 1 defendant case). That pattern is consistent with an operating company defending against an outside assertion rather than an entity monetizing its own portfolio. The venue was X-Rite's home forum, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, not a plaintiff-friendly district such as the Eastern District of Texas.
Notable case. The one tracked suit is RAH Color Technologies LLC v. X-Rite, Inc., filed June 16, 2014, in the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division. RAH Color Technologies is a patent-assertion entity that has filed a series of color-imaging and color-management suits against color technology vendors. No outcome or further detail is recorded in the case data.