Editing Gore-Tex (section)

===Gore patent held invalid in 1990===
Following the ''Gore v. Garlock'' decision, Gore sued [[C. R. Bard]] for allegedly infringing its patent by making [[ePTFE]] vascular grafts. Bard promptly settled and agreed to exit the market. Gore next sued IMPRA, Inc., a smaller maker of ePTFE vascular grafts, in the federal district court in Arizona. IMPRA had a competing patent application for the ePTFE vascular graft. In a nearly decade-long patent/antitrust battle (1984–1993), IMPRA proved that Gore-Tex was identical to prior art disclosed in a Japanese process patent by duplicating the prior art process and through statistical analysis, and also proved that Gore had withheld the best mode for using its patent, and the main claim of Gore's product patent was declared invalid in 1990.<ref name="FedCirc">{{cite web|title=''Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc. v. W.L. Gore & Assocs., Inc.'', No. 14-1114 (Fed. Cir. 2015)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/cafc/14-1114/14-1114-2015-01-13.html|website=Justia Law|publisher=Justia|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en}}</ref> 

In 1996, IMPRA was purchased by Bard and Bard was thereby able to reenter the market.  In 2002, IMPRA vascular graft patent {{US patent|6436135}} was issued, and Bard sued Gore for infringing it.

In 2006, Robert W. Gore was inducted into the [[U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame]] for his invention.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://invent.org/inductee-detail/?IID=240 |title=Robert W. Gore |publisher=National Inventors Hall of Fame |access-date=September 20, 2015}}</ref>

In 2015, Gore was ordered by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to pay Bard $1 billion in damages.<ref name="FedCirc"/> The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Federal Circuit's decision.<ref name="GoreBard_SC">{{cite web|title=''W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Petitioner v.Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc., et al.'', No. 15-41|url=http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/w-l-gore-associates-inc-v-bard-peripheral-vascular-inc/|website=SCOTUSblog|publisher=United States Supreme Court|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en|date=October 5, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Gore_Bard_SC">{{cite web|title=Docket for No. 15-41, ''W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc., Petitioner v. Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc., et al.''|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/docketfiles/15-41.htm|website=www.supremecourt.gov|publisher=United States Supreme Court|access-date=November 30, 2017|language=en|format=TEXT|date=October 5, 2015}}</ref>

Gore-Tex is used in products manufactured by many different companies.

Gore's patents on ePTFE based fabric expired in 1997 and ePTFE membrane waterproof fabrics have become available from other brands.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lindsey |first=Joe |title=New Fabric Tech Could Be Outerwear's Biggest Advance in 40 Years |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/02/voormi-core-technology/ |access-date=2023-12-06 |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>