Raytheon Court Case Against FLIR Settled in Texas

28 November 2014—Global sensor systems manufacturer FLIR (Wilsonville, Ore., USA) announced this week that a seven-year-long dispute with defense contractor Raytheon (Waltham, Mass., USA) has been settled in their favor. Raytheon filed a lawsuit in 2007 alleging that former employees of Raytheon founded a competing detector manufacturing firm, Indigo Systems, which FLIR acquired in2004, and shared trade secrets regarding infrared camera technology for military and commercial use. A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has rejected 27 of 31 different alleged trade secret infringements, awarding no damages against FLIR or its subsidiary.

The dispute began in 1996 when three employees of Raytheon Vision Systems resigned to found Indigo, and subsequently hired more than other 30 Raytheon employees. When Indigo won several key government contracts away from Raytheon, Raytheon acquired and disassembled an Indigo infrared camera and claimed the technology within was protected by Raytheon patents.

The conflict has involved numerous counter-suits, dismissals, and continuances. The jury found that the four trade secrets not dismissed in the Raytheon lawsuit were not misappropriated by either FLIR nor Indigo.