Arlington vs. Bridgeport—Courtroom News
On Jan. 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made a ruling
in the dispute between Arlington Industries and Bridgeport Fittings. The case
involves patents Arlington holds on Snap-Tite Rings and Duplex Connectors and
whether or not the Whipper-Snap Duplex Connectors made by Bridgeport infringe
on that patent.
As the recipient of releases from both sides, tedmag.com will now report what
they are saying the court said:
Arlington—the court “ruled in Arlington’s favor on all counts…at issue…was
whether Arlington’s patents are limited to split adaptors or whether they cover
both split and unsplit adaptors. The Federal Circuit, the highest patent court
in the country, agreed with Arlington that its patents were not limited to split
adaptors.”
Bridgeport— the Federal Circuit “vacated a Federal District Court summary judgment
in favor of Bridgeport Fittings regarding Arlington Industries ‘050 and ‘831
patents” but it “did not decide that Bridgeport did anything wrong or that Arlington
was in the right. The federal court entered a ruling that requires the case
to go back to the trial court for further proceedings.”
Bridgeport’s release went on: “Another appeal by Bridgeport is
still pending in that appellate court. There is no indication when that appeal
will be decided and it has yet to be scheduled in the U.S. Court of Appeals.”
Deals
ABB owns Baldor—forget stock symbol BEZ for Baldor Electric.
ABB said on Jan. 26 that it had completed the purchase of that company.
Eaton—will acquire the low-voltage electrical business of Actom
Ltd.—in South Africa. Price: Face down. The acquired ops had $58 million of
sales with 480 employees and two manufacturing facilities over a recent 12-month
period.
Separately, Eaton signed a current transducers supply agreement
with PREMO, which supplies components to Eaton.
Emerson Electric—bought Turbine Control Service Associates in
Pittsburgh, a privately held supplier of products for power plants. Price: Face
down. A Bloomberg.com news item noted that it’s Emerson’s third deal in seven
months, with the July 2, 2010 acquisition of Chloride Group plc (of the U.K.)
and its purchase on June 30, 2010 of Innovative Control Systems.
Side note: Emerson’s release, in its last paragraph, claimed
the “power plants using Emerson control technology represent approximately 725GW
of the world’s total generating capacity.”
First Solar—has been acquired RayTracker.
Southwest Windpower—this Arizona-based company claims it is “the
world’s leading supplier of distributed wind generators.” It has acquired SunWind
Solutions, which provides software for renewable energy systems.
Green Manufacturers: Familiar Names
AMSC—American Superconductor said that it had received from Inox
Wind, part of India’s Inox Group, a $9 million follow-on order “for the supply
of wind turbine electrical control systems.” The money will get Inox 17 of the
items.
Ballard Power Systems—this fuel cell maker said it had recently
produced its 1 millionth membrane electrode assembly. The MEA is “the proprietary
core component of Ballard fuel cells.”
Clipsal Australia/Schneider—Grantley White, now sales and commercial
general manager at this Schneider Electric subsidiary, told The Advertiser
on Jan. 18 that the cost of energy (electricity) is a key issue facing the
electrical industry. “Our challenge and aim is to be recognized in the area
of energy management and control, so that we can offer energy-efficient solutions.”
Evergreen Solar—this company is widely believed to be in trouble.
On Jan. 1, it affected a one-for-six reverse stock split. An AP article on Jan.
11 noted that after getting $58 million in aid from the state of Massachusetts
in 2007, the company was shutting its plant in Devens, Mass., by March 31. How
could a solar supplier be in such a parlous state in the middle of what otherwise
appears to be a solar boom? Read this
Greentech Media analysis.
GreenPlug and ThinkEco at CES—releases of note from the recent
Consumer Electronics Show—
- Green Plug—was to “preview its first product at CES, bringing intelligence,
power monitoring and advanced control to AC/DC power adapters and the consumer
device ecosystem. “ More.
- ThinkEco—was to display its “flagship product, the modlet” at CES,
according to Home
Channel News. It’s short for “modern outlet” and is said to be “the
first wirelessly communicating intelligent outlet that saves consumers money
by reducing energy waste from plugged-in appliances and other consumer electronics.”
Haier & Honeywell—identified in a recent Greentech Media
article as “joining forces…to collaborate on developing high EE solutions for
everything from homes to mass transit.” More.
Lutron/TSG/LBNL/PG&E—Lutron is participating in an Automated
Demand Response Small Commercial pilot program with the Lawrence Berkeley National
lab (unit, DOE) and Pacific Gas & Electric. More.
Magnetek—yes, the company still exists. In a Jan. 10 release,
it disclosed receipt of “production orders over the past five weeks for its
E-Force power inverters valued at over $8M.” These items are used in renewable
energy resources to convert the DC power coming from the Sun or wind into AC.
Orion hosts Obama—on Jan. 26, the day after his State Of The
Union address, President Barack Obama journeyed to Wisconsin where, among other
things, he gave another speech—at the Orion Energy Systems facility in Manitowoc.
The President stayed on theme for at least the one day: “We need to get behind
clean energy companies like Orion. We need to get behind innovation.” The quote
and picture below come from The Business Journal serving Milwaukee.
Separately, one day earlier, the same publication reported
online that Orion expected its Q3/FY11 sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31,
2010 to be 54% higher than one year earlier.
Powin—this OEM, in which one can buy stock (PWON.OB), said in
late December that it set up Powin Renewable Energy Resources Inc. to “provide
OEM services to clean energy market players” and also “offer renewable energy
products such as LED lighting and fixtures, wind turbines, solar panels, and
lithium batteries.” The company claims renewable energy product sales were $42
million in 2008 and $77 million in 2009, with anticipated annual growth of 25%
through 2015.
Siemens—
- Financial—Siemens Financial Services (a U.S.-based operation) “will
be expanding its energy and project finance offering,” including the financial
needs of energy project developers, it said late in 2010.
- Iowa—Siemens received an order from MidAmerican Energy for three
Iowa projects needing 258 wind turbines. They’ll have a combined capacity
of 593MW and should begin operating by early 2012.
- Pompano Beach—has hired Siemens Industry, which previously did a
technical energy audit for the city, according to the Dec. 12, 2010 Sun-Sentinel.
Projects, which will cost $14.8 million and reportedly save the city $15 million-plus
over nine years, including automatic water meter readings, replacing the city
hall air conditioning system, and water conservation efforts at 20 facilities.
- SunTech panels—Siemens, which is building more than 80MW of
solar projects in Europe, will use solar panels from SunTech Power Holdings
of China in several of them, according to Reuters (Jan. 27).
Stahlin—a five-page PDF, Electrical
and Enclosure Safety for Solar Energy Projects, is downloadable from Stahlin
Non-Metallic Enclosures (byline: Jeff Seagle, president).
ALSO: Stahlin said in December that it had
joined the West Michigan Solar Supply Chain. The organization was formed by
The Right Place, “a regional, nonprofit economic development organization.”
Wells Fargo/Baoding Tianwei—WF agreed with Baoding of China “to
collaborate on the development of solar power products in the United States.”
A release claims that Wells Fargo “has invested $480 million in solar projects
so far. Its National Cleantech Group offers commercial banking products and
services for clean technology firms.”
Windtronics/Honeywell/NECA—WindTronics offers the Honeywell-branded
wind turbine through WESCO. In early January, it and NECA announced that they
were working together, in the hope that NECA-member contractors would “facilitate
the installation for the Honeywell wind turbine.” The release
headline: “WindTronics builds national installer network through alliance with
NECA.”
© 2012 The Electrical Distributor. All rights reserved.