The Toro Co. and Advanced Sensor Technology Inc. released announcements today that they have resolved all outstanding litigation involving the companies' soil sensor technologies. The parties' patent infringement, trade secret, false advertising and other claims and counter-claims were resolved without any admission of liability or wrongdoing, nor any licensing arrangement, by either party.
Both companies will continue to compete in the field of soil sensing with their respective technologies, Toro's Turf Guard product and AST's UgMO product, and they've agreed not to disparage one another's product. Toro also has agreed to make a modification to its product's source code to address AST's patent infringement concerns. The modification does not impact Turf Guard's performance or functionality, said Philip Burkart, vice president of Toro's irrigation businesses.
"We've long said that we respect the valid intellectual property rights of others," Burkart said. "The litigation cast a cloud over wireless soil sensing technology in our industry, so we're happy the issues are resolved and that our customers can continue to purchase the Turf Guard system with complete confidence.
Walt Norley, CEO of AST, commented after the settlement that, "We are looking forward to competing with Toro and Turf Guard in a fair and open manner, and to allowing the many potential customers to make their purchasing decisions based on the quality, price and efficiency of our respective products."
No other terms of the confidential settlement were released.
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