I4F Wins Court Case Against Dutch Unilin Beheer B.V.

Willemstad, Curaçao, October 20, 2016—Innovations4Flooring (I4F) has announced a court case win against Unilin Beheer B.V. to nullify the Dutch part of Unilin’s base pretension patent EP 1026341 (EP’341).

This decision was taken by the District Court of The Hague in the Netherlands following proceedings on the merits filed by I4F against Unilin in December 2014. Unilin was instructed to reimburse all I4F’s legal costs.

Today’s ruling means that the Dutch part of Unilin’s patent EP’341 is fully nullified and must be regarded as having never existed. I4F believes this effectively releases flooring manufacturers and distributors from the obstruction created by Unilin’s patent after 19 years of invalid enforcement and unjustified payment of license fees, but this is being disputed by Unilin. The judge also ruled that I4F’s locking technology, Click4U, does not infringe EP’341 in Europe.

According to I4F, the court found that technological elements of EP’341 were already revealed by Unilin before the patent was even filed; in other words, patent EP’341 should never have been filed.

According to Unilin, "The decision is limited to the Dutch part of EP (NL) 1026341, has no effect until a final appeal decision issues, has no invalidity effect for any other country other than the Netherlands, and also has no effect on any of the other 32 Dutch patents or European patents related to Unilin’s glueless locking patent portfolio. Sweeping statements about Unilin’s glueless locking patent portfolio, Unilin’s Licensing program and non-infringement by I4F in Europe are simply incorrect."

This ruling follows a earlier ruling in December 2015 on EP’341, which was in favor of Unilin: http://www.floordaily.net/flooring-news/unilin-wins-court-case-against-innovations-4-floor.

This event is part of an ongoing dispute between the I4F and Unilin about a number of patents. In June, the European patent office published a preliminary opinion regarding EP’724: http://www.floordaily.net/flooring-news/european-patent-office-rules-in-favor-of-innovatio.