Court Upholds Välinge Patent

Waregem, Belgium, February 27, 2006--The German Patent Court judged on February 23rd that Välinges Utility Model DE 299 24 259 was new and inventive over the prior art, and decided to maintain the Utility Model. The Utility Model protects floorpanels that can be mechanically joined and use different materials for the locking elements on long and short side. Unilin, Meisterleisten and Parador failed in their attempt to have the Utility Model revoked. Only a minor modification, the incorporation of wood fiber material as material from which the locking element on the short side is made of, was required by the panel of examiners in order to maintain the protective rights. Currently, a lot of glue free wooden floorpanels on the market have a HDF-strip on the short side. This decision contradicts the revocation of the corresponding European patent on February 22nd by the European Patent Office. This last decision will be appealed by Välinge as the reasons for the revocation of the corresponding European patent are not convincing and therefore Välinge expects that this decision will be overturned in appeal. Berry Finance (now part of Beaulieu International Group) will reactivate its pending court cases in Germany against Meisterleisten and Parador on the basis of this Utility Model.

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