Symbol Technologies Sues Intermec

Symbol Technologies Inc. is counter-suing Intermec Technologies Corp. for patent infringement, company officials said Friday.

The lawsuit, filed March 10 in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleges that Intermec has infringed on Symbol's patents for wireless communications standard 802.11. It also covers Intermec's use of Symbol Wi-Fi patents in Intermec's bar-code-scanning terminals.

The decision resulted from a licensing battle between the two companies regarding intellectual property. Intermec has filed a lawsuit against Symbol, accusing the company of infringing on Intermec's radio-frequency identification patents. Symbol sought to address these IP issues through a cross-licensing arrangement between the two companies. Resolution efforts haven't been successful.

"Symbol believes that Intermec's imposition of its RFID IP on the industry is potentially harmful to the industry and customers," said Peter Lieb, Symbol senior VP and general counsel, in a prepared statement. "For months, Symbol has negotiated in earnest, seeking a fair business resolution. As we have a responsibility to our shareholders to protect and defend Symbol's intellectual property, we believed there was no alternative but to file suit against Intermec."