Plaintiff

Aspex Eyewear, Inc.

7 cases as plaintiff.

Cases
7
Active
0
7 closed
Filed
2009
Top venue
S.D. Florida
4 cases
Also appears as a defendant in 1 case → View as defendant

Company profile

Company overview. Aspex Eyewear, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned eyewear company founded in 1965 by Nonu Ifergan; the Ifergan family (Karen, Thierry, Yael) remains in ownership and management. It is a Delaware corporation with a U.S. principal place of business at 2755 SW 32nd Avenue, Pembroke Park/Hollywood, Florida, and head offices in Montreal, Quebec (with offices in Miami and France); the Canadian affiliate is Aspex Eyewear International Inc. / Lunettes Aspex International Inc. It is not publicly traded. Size estimates from third-party trackers vary widely — revenue figures range from roughly $9M to $36M and headcount from about 76 to 150 — so no single figure is reliable.

Products / operations. Aspex designs and distributes prescription eyewear and sunwear wholesale to optical retailers, describing itself as serving over 50,000 accounts in more than 80 countries. Its product lines center on eyewear technologies it has commercialized, including EasyClip magnetic clip-on eyewear, EasyTwist memory-metal frames, and the TurboFlex rotating-hinge frame family (including TurboFlex Kids); it also markets Takumi. This is a real operating business, not a shell.

Patent-litigation posture. All four tracked cases list Aspex as plaintiff and none as defendant, but it is not a classic non-practicing entity: it is an operating eyewear maker that enforces magnetic clip-on eyewear patents as exclusive licensee, with the patent owner (Taiwan-based Contour Optik, Inc.) typically joined or related. Asserted patents include U.S. 5,737,054, 6,012,811, 6,092,896 and RE37,545. Suits were filed in the District of Nevada, S.D.N.Y. (transferred to D. Massachusetts), S.D. Florida and elsewhere — not in the Eastern District of Texas.

Notable cases and context. Aspex Eyewear, Inc. v. Altair Eyewear, Inc. produced claim constructions holding "retaining mechanism" requires rims, defeating infringement; the '054 claim was later held invalid for obviousness. Those rulings then collaterally estopped Aspex Eyewear, Inc. v. Zenni Optical, LLC (Fed. Cir. 2013, 713 F.3d 1377). In Aspex Eyewear, Inc. v. E'Lite Optik, Inc., the Federal Circuit affirmed summary judgment that Aspex lacked standing as an exclusive licensee because its written license did not convey exclusive rights. Aspex Eyewear, Inc. v. Designers Eyewear Studio, Inc. proceeded to claim construction in 2006.

Watchlist

Get alerted when Aspex Eyewear, Inc. sues again.

Email-only, free, anonymous. We'll notify you when Aspex Eyewear, Inc. files another patent-infringement lawsuit. One-click unsubscribe from any alert.

Aspex Eyewear, Inc. et al. v. E'Lite Optik, Inc.

judgment affirmed
Docket:
CV-S-00-1116-PMP; 2:00-cv-01116
Patents:60128115737054
π Aspex Eyewear, Inc.π Contour Optik, Inc.Δ E'Lite Optik, Inc.

Plaintiffs asserted the '811 patent (Count I). The district court granted summary judgment dismissing Aspex's claims for lack of standing as to the '054 and '811 patents; the Federal Circuit affirmed (04-1292), holding the '811 retaining mechanism was a means-plus-function limitation limited to rims.

Aspex Eyewear, Inc. et al. v. Altair Eyewear, Inc.

concluded
Docket:
7:02-cv-06195; 1:10-cv-12202
Patents:601281157370546092896
π Aspex Eyewear, Inc.π Contour Optik, Inc.Δ Altair Eyewear, Inc.

Plaintiffs asserted claims 1–3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12–14, 22–24, 26–28, and 31–33 of the '811 patent, claim 1 of the '054 patent, and claims 13–22 of the '896 patent. The district court granted summary judgment of non-infringement; the Federal Circuit affirmed non-infringement of '811 and '896, reversed the '054 construction and remanded; on remand the '054 claim was held invalid. The case concluded after further appeals and a Supreme Court petition (12-1120).