February 6, 2012

Honeywell alleges HVAC controller patent infringement in lawsuit

Honeywell International Inc. announced Monday it is suing Nest Labs Inc., alleging the defendant infringed on a Honeywell patent for a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) controller plus six other thermostat technology patents.

Morristown, New Jersey-based Honeywell filed the statement of claim in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Nest Labs is a Palo Alto, California-based thermostat vendor.

“The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Nest Labs and Best Buy Co., Inc., which sells the Nest Labs thermostat, from using Honeywell's patented technology and to recover damages caused by the infringement,” Honeywell stated in a press release.

The allegations have yet to be proven in court.

Honeywell is claiming Nest Labs infringed upon:

• U.S. Patent No. 7,634,504, Natural Language Installer Set Up for Controller;

•U.S. Patent No. 7,142,948, Controller Interface with Dynamic Schedule Display;

•U.S. Patent No. 7,584,899, HVAC Controller;

•U.S. Patent No. 7,159,789, Thermostat with Mechanical User Interface;

•U.S. Patent No. 7,159,790, Thermostat with Offset Drive;

•U.S. Patent No. 7,476,988, Power Stealing Control Devices; and

•U.S. Patent No. 6,975,958, Profile Based Method for Deriving a Temperature Setpoint Using a 'Delta' Based On Cross-Indexing a Received Price-Point Level Signal.

DCN DIGITAL MEDIA

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