Cognex Corporation, a supplier of machine vision systems, has served a complaint against Acacia Research Corporation and Veritec, Inc.  The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota.
    Cognex is seeking a declaration that U.S. Patent 5,612,524, which claims to cover a system for reading 2D symbology, is invalid, unenforceable and not infringed by either Cognex or by any users of Cognex products.  The patent has not been asserted against Cognex, but, nevertheless, Cognex has taken this action to protect its customers who have received demand letters.
    This patent was originally assigned to Veritec, a Minnesota-based developer of symbology codes, and is now part of a patent licensing program being carried out by Acacia Technologies Group.  Acacia is a publicly-held company whose sole purpose is to profit by asserting patents that it has either purchased or to which it has obtained rights.