CooperVision (CVI) is an established contact lens maker. As one of the world's largest makers CooperVision make soft lenses and "crazy" lenses. The contacts can change the color of your eyes or make them look like cat eyes or several other shapes with their "crazy" lenses. They are in 12 countries across five continents. CVI markets a broad range of lenses that create common and complicated eye defects, such as nearsightedness, astigmatism, myopia, and presbyopia. (CooperVision 2006)
CIBA Vision is a leader in research and development and manufacturing of contact lenses. CIBA products are in more than 70 countries. CIBA manufactures extended wear contacts, a daily disposable and of course contacts that can change the color of your eyes. CIBA Vision offers 62 combinations of contact lens styles, the most of any lens manufacturer. (CIBA Vision 2006) CIBA Vision is a unit of Novartis AG.
About 50% of the world's population and about 160 million people in the United States need their vision corrected.
English: Bausch & Lomb Vision Care division campus...
Contactlensverpakking iWear Performance High CIBA ...
English: Bausch & Lomb headquarters in Rochester, ...There are about 33 million contact lens wearers, teens are the fastest growing segment and since 1991 the number of lens wearers in this country as increased by about 4% a year. (CooperVision 2006)
Suit against CIBA
On April 11, 2006 CVI, file a lawsuit against CIBA in federal court claiming that CIBA violated patents against CVI because of its O2Optix contact lens. (Business Week 2006)
CVI charges in the suit "two sets of patent infringements relating to the features that control edge uniqueness of specific types of contact lenses and the other to designs for types of lenses that treat astigmatism, an irregularity in the shape of the eye." Business Week 2006) the suite was filed in a federal district court in Texas. (Business Week 2006) In addition, CVI filed an action seeking...