Fingerprint sensor suit heats up

Two rivals, AuthenTec Inc. (Melbourne, Fla.). and Atrua Technologies Inc. (Campbell, Calif.), last year traded patent suits in the arena.

Last week, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ''denied Atrua's motion to add a claim of misappropriation of trade secrets as a counterclaim to AuthenTec's patent infringement claims, and further denied its motion for a preliminary injunction against AuthenTec,'' according to AuthenTec.

The court, according to AuthenTec, ''had already denied a previous motion for a temporary restraining order,'' accordng to AuthenTec. ''The court also ruled that Atrua violated a previous court order in the case.''

The court is currently scheduled to proceed with claim construction of the first two of five patents that AuthenTec has asserted.