Principal Lighting Group (PLG; San Angelo, TX) announced that a recent lawsuit involving Reece Supply Company and RetroLED has been resolved in PLG s favor, according to PLG. In 2018, RetroLED Components filed a declaratory judgment lawsuit against Principal Lighting Group in attempt to invalidate PLG’s U.S. Patent No. 9,311,835. In 2019, as part of that suit, Principal Lighting Group sued Reece Supply Company of Dallas for infringement of the ’835 Patent. After more than two years of litigation, PLG has announced that it has favorably resolved the case.
In the suit, PLG alleged that Reece Supply and RetroLED were aware of PLG’s ’835 Patent and infringed that patent with Reece Supply’s “Reece Stick” and certain RetroLED end cap products. As a result of the infringement, PLG suffered monetary and market damage. In addition to alleging that the ’835 Patent was invalid, Reece Supply and RetroLED responded that they did not infringe.
On Aug. 27, 2020, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas (Waco Division) conducted a hearing on a number of potentially case dispositive motions that the parties had filed. The Court ultimately granted summary judgment that Reece Supply and RetroLED infringed the ’835 Patent. The Court also granted PLG’s motion for summary judgment that no single prior art reference invalidated the ’835 Patent. Relatedly, the Court denied Reece Supply and RetroLED’s motion for summary judgment seeking to invalidate the ’835 Patent based on various prior art references and combinations discussed in a 200+ page report from its technical expert.
Since the hearing, the parties have resolved the case with an agreement to certain financial and business terms by which Reece Supply and RetroLED will compensate PLG. Reece Supply has ceased production of its “Reece Stick” product but will be allowed to sell any existing inventory for a short period of time during which Reece Supply will pay PLG royalties on those sales. RetroLED has ceased production of its infringing end caps and destroyed its existing inventory of those end caps.
The case is styled RetroLED Components, LLC v. Principal Lighting Group, LLC; Principal Lighting Group, LLC v. Reece Supply Company of Dallas, Western District of Texas Case No. 6:18-cv-00055-ADA.
For more information, visit p-led.com.