WAC and Hinkley Exchange Competing Allegations

Wangs Alliance Corporation d/b/a WAC Lighting has filed suit in the International Trade Commission (an administrative import/export “court” within the federal government) seeking to ban Hinkley Lighting, Inc. from importing certain light fixtures manufactured overseas.  StyledIn re Certain LED Landscape Lighting Devices, Inv. No. 337-TA-3672 (ITC), the complaint alleges that certain Hinkley landscape lights infringe one or more of three patents directed to a particular watertight spotlight with an adjustable lens.  Under the rules of the ITC, WAC cannot seek financial damages, only an importation ban as to the specific products.

Meanwhile, in federal court in Ohio, Hinkley has alleged that WAC infringes several Hinkley patents.  According to a declaratory judgement action there, Hinckley has accused several higher-end WAC pendants of infringing several Hinkley patents of infringing 5 patents.  The patents appear to broadly concern thermal management of LED modules and various configurations of electrically and thermally conductive/insulative layers below a light engine.  Hinkley has not yet publicly filed its own allegations (they are merely recounted in WAC’s paper) but presumably will do so in the next month.