FONAR Corporation (Melville, NY) announced in a press release dated 23 November 1998 that "the litigation relating to the '966 patent had been resolved by the parties, Shimadzu and Fonar." According to the agreement, "Shimadzu has agreed to pay royalties to FONAR in exchange for Shimadzu being granted a license under the '966 patent." Other terms of the settlement are confidential (probably at Shimadzu's urging).

The '966 patent is FONAR's Multi-Angle Oblique (MAO) patent which was issued back in 1986 (e.g. U.S. Patent No. 4,871,966). FONAR Corporation reports that it "has been highly successful with the MAO patent and 'The Cancer Detection Patent' which is the world's first MRI patent." FONAR's patent portfolio includes "the MRI magnet patents that originated 'OPEN MRI.'"

FONAR (NASDAQ - FONR) continues to vigorously protect its intellectual property rights. On the other hand, Shimadzu has demonstrated a careless and willful disregard for the law as well as FONAR's intellectual properties when they infringed!

n.b. Shimadzu got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.... do you think this is the first time that Shimadzu has infringed on someone else's intellectual property?

n.b. Shimadzu has been known to lie, deny and cover-up; now you can add infringment (i.e. to break the law) to the list! What will this corrupt outfit do for an encore?

n.b. This kind of behavior conjures up memories of the surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor waged by those sneaky Japanese lowlifes!