3M Suing Touch Display Manufacturers Over P-Cap Tech, Alleging Infringement

August 21, 2018 by Dave Haynes

3M has gone after a pair of touch display manufacturers, with lawsuits alleging its patents for metal mesh conductor technology has been infringed.

The latest lawsuit was filed in a federal district court in Las Vegas against South Korea-based Tovis Co. Ltd. and its subsidiary Tovis North America, as well as Scientific Games Corporation.

The suit alleges that certain Tovis touch display products, used by Scientific Games in its gaming machines, infringe a series of 3M’s U.S. patents.

Metal mesh conductor tech is a bit like a fine wire screen that helps enable projected capacitive touch sensors. P-cap, as it is also known, is widely used for everything from portable devices to big digital signage touchscreens – enabling the kind of pinch and zoom interactive that consumers now do naturally.

Earlier this year, 3M filed a similar patent infringement lawsuit against Elo Touch Solutions Inc.

“3M invests substantially in research and development to create innovative products for our customers,” says Makoto Ishii, vice president and general manager, 3M Display Materials and Systems Division. “We will defend our intellectual property protecting those investments against unauthorized use and infringement by metal mesh manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, and others making use of 3M’s intellectual property rights.”