Mike is correct. This patent will expire 04 August 2009.

Mike’s question regarding why he waited this long is an extremely valid question. There are two issues here.

First, you can only claim royalties going back six years.

Second, since the value of these electronics have gone down, the amount of the royalties will be substantially less per unit than they would have been a decade ago.

Third, I suspect that he will have to explain why he waited so long to sue. His patent has existed for nearly 20 years. All of the defendants will argue estoppel because of the length of time his “invention” has been practiced.

Of course, any of the defendants could pretty much stop this litigation in its tracks by requesting a re-examination of the patent. Most courts will halt litigation until the re-examination is complete, which would delay litigation for years.

Will he get very far? I do not know. However, he has put himself in a position where his chances of success have been significantly reduced because of his failure to act.

Incidentally, he let his patent expire when the third maintenance fee became due. He petitioned the USPTO to accept the late maintenance fee because “the dog ate his homework.” Just kidding. He says that his computer fell victim to Y2K, and then it got a virus. He though he had all his important dates added to his calendar, but missed this one. You can guarantee that defendants will make use of that little tidbit as well.

I worked for Comlinear starting in 1984 designing amplifiers. We had a core technology–current feedback as applied to op amps–that no other competitor had at the time. This is the core technology in Bender’s patent, but our *products* predated his patent by a decade. Wikipedia has fairly accurate info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current-feedback_operational_amplifier
You may have to splice the url.
Bender does not have anything original in his core idea. I did not wade through all the claims.

Steve