Fonar Corp. v. General Electric Co.
Fonar Corp. v. General Electric Co., 107 F.3d 1543, was a case decided in 1997 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit concerning source code and the disclosure requirement for software patents.
Case details
Factual background
Fonar was a dispute between medical device manufacturer Fonar Corporation and General Electric over Fonar's patent on MRI technology. Fonar's founder, Raymond Damadian, was issued U.S. Patent 3,789,832 for an "apparatus and method for detecting cancer in tissue" using the magnetic resonance of atoms. Damadian's patent was the first patent on an MRI machine issued in the United States. Also at issue was a later patent, U.S. Patent 4,871,966 issued in 1989, covering a method for obtaining MRI images of multiple planes at different orientations in a single scan. GE is a major manufacturer of MRI scanners, and Fonar sued GE for infringing these patents by producing its scanners as well as inducing others to infringe.Procedural history
A jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York found that GE infringed patent 4,871,966 and awarded Fonar $110.5 million in damages. GE appealed this verdict to the Federal Circuit. The District Court also granted GE's motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that GE did not infringe patent 3,789,832, which Fonar cross-appealed to the Federal Circuit as well.The Federal Circuit found for Fonar on both issues, upholding the jury's verdict and reversing the JMOL concerning patent 3,789,832. GE appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which denied certiorari. GE ultimately paid Fonar over $120 million in damages plus interest.