BIOLASE Rejects Frivolous, Abusive Patent Litigation
IRVINE, Calif.-- BIOLASE, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIOL), the world's leading dental laser company, today released the following statement in response to the latest attempt by CAO Group, Inc. to use patent litigation to try to improve its competitive position in the marketplace.
Though the lasers at issue represent less than a third of the company's revenues and are entirely unrelated to Waterlase®, its flagship brand, BIOLASE intends to fight CAO's most recent meritless claims vigorously. BIOLASE is well-known for its own innovations, and for respecting the valid intellectual property rights of others. It is not surprising that CAO has failed for years in its attempts to intimidate BIOLASE through abusive patent litigation. The most crucial claims against BIOLASE were rejected by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, as well as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. BIOLASE is fully confident that this latest attempt will also fail.
BIOLASE licenses some of its technology to other manufacturers for commercially reasonable royalties, but BIOLASE does not license patents that are invalid or do not cover its products. CAO's latest frivolous claims overlap significantly and focus on lasers with various non-differentiating feature combinations such as replaceable tips, wireless foot pedals, battery packs, laser fiber connectors, laser monitoring integrated circuits and touch screens. Dentists know that these features have been used in lasers for many years, and these features do not represent innovations worthy of patent protection.
Harold Flynn, Chief Executive Officer of BIOLASE, stated, "Rather than compete fairly and effectively in the marketplace against our products and advance laser dentistry overall, Densen Cao has adopted the destructive strategy of abusive patent litigation as his de facto business model. Once again, he continues to abuse our court system with his eponymous company, with patent troll-like strategies, in an attempt to do what he can't seem do in the marketplace: compete against us by selling products. After battling for years, we are well aware of his irrational game plan and we remain steadfast in our belief that we will prevail over his latest gambit."
Flynn continued, "BIOLASE is an early pioneer in the field and is proud of its 30 years of innovation. CAO, still a bit commercial player, is putting forth a tortured application of claims from patents that appear to have received minimal scrutiny from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
"BIOLASE is proud to produce and sell the highest quality and value products manufactured here in the United States," Flynn added. "CAO's diode is a second-rate product manufactured in China," added Flynn. "As my predecessor stated six years ago, it is cheaply made, has a large physical footprint, and flaunts an unattractive design – which is why it cannot develop market share. Sadly, Densen Cao has once again exploited our court system to try in vain to achieve what he still cannot accomplish in the dental marketplace."