One of the biometric industries’ most absorbing legal wrangles appears to have been settled amicably between LG Electronics and Iridian Technologies (part of the L-1 Identity Solutions portfolio). The two iris recognition companies have been in dispute since August 2004, at which time Iridian announced it had terminated its longstanding agreement with LG to use, sell or distribute Iridian’s technology and intellectual property – a situation which LG, at the time, said was unlawful.

Alongside the legal announcement LG Electronics and its wholly owned subsidiary LG Electronics USA said they have entered into a license agreement with Iridian Technologies to license proprietary iris recognition software from Iridian. 

The move sees the two parties settle all historical issues and disputes between LGE and L-1, Iridian, and Securimetrics (also a wholly owned subsidiary of L-1) and dismisses the pending litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, in Newark (LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc. and LG Electronics, Inc., v. Iridian Technologies, Civil Action No. 04-391[(D. N.J.]).

Consequently Iridian has assigned to LGE whatever rights Iridian may have in the “IRISACCESS” trademark. The terms of the agreements are confidential.

All parties say they can now move forward together to provide improved products and services to the global iris recognition market. 

Charles Koo, chairman of LGE USA and Robert V. LaPenta, chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions issued a joint statement today saying: “We are happy to have arrived at a mutually acceptable resolution to this longstanding dispute and believe that it will be an important step forward for the iris recognition industry…We anticipate that iris will become one of the fastest growing biometric market segments in the future.”