Aperio Technologies, Inc, (Aperio), a global leader in digital pathology for the healthcare and life sciences industry, has filed suit for patent infringement against Olympus America, Inc, Hamamatsu Corporation and Hamamatsu Photonics KK (together, Hamamatsu). The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleges that Hamamatsu's NanoZoomer digital pathology system distributed by Olympus America infringes three United States patents issued to Aperio.

"Aperio has invested significant resources in research and development to create the most technologically advanced slide scanners and software systems available today," said Dirk Soenksen, CEO of Aperio. "Our ultra-fast line-scanning technology has contributed significantly to the creation and growth of the digital pathology market. Additionally, our innovative approaches to image acquisition and processing, including our patented prefocus technology, are poised to unlock a plethora of commercial opportunities. We have an obligation to our shareholders to protect our intellectual property. After years of repeated and unsuccessful attempts to engage Olympus America and Hamamatsu in discussions about our intellectual property, we are taking legal action to defend that property from further infringement."

Aperio's complaint accuses Olympus America and Hamamatsu of infringing three Aperio patents relating to digital pathology. The three patents asserted in the lawsuit are: United States Patent No. 6,917,696 entitled 'Fully Automatic Rapid Microscope Slide Scanner', United States Patent No. 7,457,446 entitled 'Fully Automatic Rapid Microscope Slide Scanner', and United States Patent No. 7,518,652 entitled 'Method and Apparatus for Prefocus in a Linear Array Based Slide Scanner'.

Since its inception in 1999, Aperio has built a formidable patent position to protect the valuable inventions resulting from its significant investment in research and development. Aperio's intellectual property portfolio now comprises more than 55 issued or pending patents covering slide scanning, data management, and image viewing and analysis.

Aperio has retained Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP, the premier business litigation firm in the United States, as counsel in this action.

Aperio is digitizing pathology. We provide systems and services for digital pathology, which is an environment for the management and interpretation of pathology information that originates with the digitization of a glass slide.