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Unilin
Wins Patent Dispute Against Berry Group in Germany.
German court decides that the product of the Berry Group infringes
the Unilin utility model.
In a press
release FlooringGuide.com obtained, it was announced that Unilin,
with products marketed under the Quick-Step® and Uniclic®
trademarks, obtained a judgment from a German court in Hamburg
in regards to their October 1999 suit against Norske Skog Flooring
(NSF).
Unilin first
manufactured laminate flooring panels that can be installed without
glue by means of directly milling the core material to achieve
patented clic profiles into the boards.
Press Release
Excerpts
Wielsbeke.
On the 29th of March 2001, UNILIN obtained a judgment by the court
of first instance in Hamburg. UNILIN sued the German and Norwegian
companies Norske Skog Flooring (NSF) in October 1999 for infringement
of the German Utility Model DE 297 10 175. The 'Landesgerich Hamburg'
decided that the Fiboloc system infringes the UNILIN Utility Model.
The decision is appealable and therefore not final. A "Utility
Model" is a technical intellectual property (IP) right which
ensures the same protection as a patent, but only offers protection
for 10 years and is applicable with the German territory. In the
meanwhile Unilin obtained American and European patents on the
Uniclic technology.
NSF has been
taken over by the Berry Group [in] early 2000. NSF and Berry produce
laminate flooring with the Fiboloc system as designed by Välinge
Aluminium, a Swedish company for which the Berry Group obtained
an exclusive license.
The discussion
is focused on a joining system which allows laminate flooring
panels to be installed without glue. Unilin was the first to successfully
produce and market such a system, which is directly milled out
of the core material. The product is marketed under the Trademarks
"Quick-Step®" and "Uniclic®". Later
several competitors, including NSF with the Fiboloc system, introduced
a comparable system. This innovation has taken substantial market
shares during the last three years.
This legal
victory is a landmark in the paten dispute between Unilin and
the Berry Group. The Berry Group tried to prove for the courts
in The Hague that the Uniclic®-system infringed the Välinge
rights. Judgments of 11.06.1999, 02.02.2000* and 19.11.2000**
make clear that the Uniclic®-system doesn't infringe the Välinge
rights.
On the contrary,
Unilin has proven in Hamburg that the Berry Group infringes the
German Utility Model.
The different
glueless systems in the market can be fitted in three categories:
products produced under a license of the Unilin Group, products
produced with the Fiboloc system and products produced by other
who try to avoid existing patent rights.
Unilin is
expecting new IP rights in the near future. These new right will
make it more and more difficult for the competitors to avoid the
Unilin IP rights.
This German
judgment clearly shows that Unilin possesses a strong IP position.
"Since our European Uniclic® patent is based on the same
priority as the German Utility Model, we can definitely say that
this German procedure was a serious test of our European Uniclic®
patent" say Bernard Thiers, managing director of Unilin.
"Now we can state that our IP rights successfully passed
this test."
UNILIN has
a production process which has integrated all steps in the production
of the laminate flooring panels with clic systems. The company
has [its] own MDF factory, has several impregnating lines, several
pressing lines and has various lines to mill the clic profiles
into the boards.
The Group
has production plants in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
Currently the UNILIN Group employs more than 1500 people and has
a turnover of 500 mi. Euro.
* Appeal is
pending
** id.
Author:
FlooringGuide.com
Press Release: Unilin 04.04.2001
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