CAMDENTON, MO – Speedline Technologies has filed a motion against one of its wave soldering licensees, alleging contempt by reason of unlicensed sales of infringing product.

The motion, announced yesterday, asserts Specnor Tecnic Corp. previously had entered into a limited license under Speedline’s US Patent no. 5,203,489, which is directed to inert wave soldering technology. Speedline did not elaborate on the specific claim of infringement.

In the motion, Speedline seeks to enforce its patent rights and to prevent any unwanted litigation with customers of Specnor Tecnic that may have purchased allegedly unlicensed products.

A Speedline spokesman told CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY that the parties settled a lawsuit in 2001, at which time Specnor agreed to pay Speedline a royalty for nitrogen retrofit kits on wave solder machines or on any new machine sold with nitrogen. Speedline, through an independent third party, conducted an audit of Specnor’s records, the spokesman said. As a result, Speedline alleges that Specnor sold unlicensed infringing products and failed to pay royalties on the unlicensed products.

Specnor had filed a suit against Speedline in Florida Middle District Court on May 10. That case is pending. The Speedline spokesman said that complaint was, in his company's opinion, an attempt to get into court first.

Specnor sells retrofit kits said to enable lead-free soldering in wave machine originally designed for tin-lead solder.

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