$1 BILLION PATENT INFRINGEMENT AWARD While it is still enmeshed in a morass of claims, counterclaims and legal machinations, the patent fight between Litton Industries and Honeywell over an ion-beam process for coating the mirrors of ring laser gyroscopes may prove to be a record-breaker for the photonics industry, in terms of cost if not complexity. The stakes are formidable mainly because the market for ring laser gyros has mushroomed to more than $1 billion in the quarter century since they first reached the market. The financial dimensions of the controversy were made clear on August 31 when a US District Court jury in California awarded $1.2 billion in damages based on the company's claim that Honeywell, which developed the first laser gyros in the 1960s, had subsequently and "willfully" appropriated a special process Litton patented in 1978 for coating the instruments' high-precision mirrors. The jury award is by no means the last word in the matter, since it can be altered by the district court judge or taken to the patent appeals court in Washington - or, for that matter, considerably increased if Litton were successful in its planned quest for triple damages. Further beclouding the picture as of late September was a barrage of additional legal maneuvers and motions on both sides, including an attack on the validity of the Litton patent by Honeywell. Yet to be adjudicated is a claim by Litton that Honeywell has violated antitrust laws by allegedly trying to monopolize ring laser gyro markets, and counterclaims by Honeywell charging Litton with attempting to monopolize inertial laser guidance markets. Central to the Litton infringement action is a claim that a Litton license - Ojai Research, a California firm whose founder co-invented the coating process at issue while employed at Litton - was induced by Honeywell to breach the licensing agreement. The jury verdict of $1.2 billion applies only to gyros used in commercial aircraft, where Honeywell has the bulk of the business. Litton is number one in the military market.