The American court returns to the consideration of the lawsuit against the Pentagon. Zoltek Corp. accuses the US military department, as well as its contractor, of stealing technology "stealth".
In the twentieth year of filing the first lawsuit, Zoltek Corp. from St. Louis back to the old business. Rather, a firm specializing in the development and study of composite materials remembered about him all this time, but only now she had the opportunity to try again to prove that the Pentagon uses stealth technology without paying for it. Or, to put it simply, by stealing it.
The Court of Appeal decided to return to the consideration of the claim by Zoltek Corp., filed back in March 1996. The court's statement says that the judge erroneously invalidated the Zoltek patent on the grounds that the scientists allegedly knew without a patent the temperature at which the electrical resistance of carbon fibers changes. We are talking about stealth technology, which allows using various materials and, in particular, carbon fibers to significantly reduce the possibility of radar detection of combat aircraft and other objects.
The Washington Court of Appeals ordered the Federal Claims Court to revert to a lawsuit in which Zoltek claims that the US government, represented by the Department of Defense, and the government contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. violated his patents. The first "invisible" fighter, the F-22, is made from Tyranno carbon fiber using Zoltek techniques. Zoltek has similar claims to Northrop Grumman Corp., which created the first "invisible" bomber, the B-2.
Zoltek filed the documentation to the Patent Office, Bloomberg recalls, in 1984. The patent dates back to 1988. In the same year, the public for the first time, by the way, was shown the B-2 bomber, in which the revolutionary stealth technology was used.
A federal claims court in Washington has denied Zoltek's claim because the matter concerns state security. Government contractors are immune from prosecution under this law. According to US law, the lawsuit was initially filed with the US government and only then redirected by Lockheed.
Since then, the Zoltek lawsuit has been "wandering" between the Claim and the Court of Appeal, by the way, located in the same building. In 2004, the Court of Claims declared Zoltek's patent invalid. However, the Court of Appeal overturned this decision on the basis of a 1987 letter written by an engineer at Northrop Grumman Corp. The author of the letter admitted that he first saw the "invisible" material, as developed by Zoltek.
Now the metropolitan judge is going to consider the patent infringement complaint by Zoltek again. The Pentagon does not hide its intentions to once again resort to the tried and tested protection - the law on state secrecy and state security. In 2013, then Air Force Secretary Michael Donley emphasized in a letter to the court that it was a matter of national security and secrets that could be used by the enemies of the United States to create their own stealth aircraft.
Curiously, while the lawsuit was wandering between the Claim and Appellate Courts, the Japanese firm Toray Industries Inc. bought Zoltek in 2014 for $ 584 million. So, in fact, Japanese businessmen are now suing the American government.
