Patent Claims
A United States patent 5,727,236 was issued on March 10, 1998 for the lens and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Technical Achievement Award to Frazier for his lenses. The patent was licensed to Panavision for production and marketing of the lens. In 2003, Panavision and Frazier brought suit against Roessel Cine Photo Tech, Inc. for violating the patent.
At the trial, it was discovered that the 60 minute Panavision educational video that the Frazier lawyers had submitted ("n the interests of demonstrating to the Examiner the features and uniqueness of the optical system of this patent application") had 8 seconds of a shot that had been created with a different lens. Although Frazier reshot the footage in question with the FrazierPanavision lens the patent was declared unenforceable for inequitable conduct and attorney's fees were awarded to the defendants.
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