Plaintiff
1 case as plaintiff.
Note on entity type: The database entry "Gary D. Pignato" is a natural person—an individual patent holder—not a company. As such, there is no headquarters, employee count, revenue band, or ownership structure to report; those facts are not applicable and cannot be verified.
Profile. U.S. Patent No. 6,240,346, "System with Light Display and Data Recorder for Monitoring Vehicle in Relation to Adjacent Vehicle," was filed in 1999 (priority 1998) and issued to Pignato as sole inventor and owner. Patent-register records list a proprietor address of 117 W. Brantwood Avenue, Elk Grove, Illinois. A corresponding European patent, EP 1189772, was granted in 2004 and later lapsed/ceased for non-payment of renewal fees. Pignato's patent portfolio appears limited to a small number of individual filings, consistent with a lone inventor rather than a portfolio-holding licensing vehicle.
Patent-litigation posture. The single tracked case—Pignato v. Mobileye, Inc. et al., No. 1:16-cv-00800 (S.D. Ind., Indianapolis Division), filed April 11, 2016—is a plaintiff-side assertion against an operating company. Stanford's NPE litigation database classifies Pignato as a "Non-Practicing Entity" and categorizes the asserter as "9 Individual." He has zero defendant-side cases. Venue was the Southern District of Indiana (not the plaintiff-friendly Eastern District of Texas).
Notable case. In the Mobileye suit, Pignato alleged direct, induced, and contributory infringement of the '346 patent by Mobileye's 5-Series driver-assistance systems, particularly the Mobileye 560, accusing their camera/Forward Collision Warning technology of practicing the claims. He sought injunctive relief, damages (trebled if willful), costs, and fees, and alleged he had previously offered Mobileye a license. According to defense counsel Finnegan, after the defendants developed non-liability positions and a potential Rule 11 motion, Pignato voluntarily withdrew the suit; the case is closed. No merits ruling is reflected in the available sources.
Sources: USPTO/patent-register records via Justia and national registers; Docket (Justia Dockets); Stanford NPE Litigation Database; Finnegan case summary; indianapatentlaw complaint reporting.
Gary D. Pignato sued Mobileye, Inc. and Mobileye N.V. for patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271, accusing Mobileye 5-Series driver-assistance systems including the Mobileye 560 System. The case was voluntarily withdrawn/dismissed by plaintiff and is closed.