Yekalon Claims Patent Win Over Unilin

Shenzhen, China, Nov. 23, 2009--Yekalon Industry Inc. said it has successfully defended a Unilin lawsuit over its interlocking technology for laminate and wood flooring.

“We have received verbal advice from the judge in Germany, saying the decision, which will be released soon, favored Yekalon,” Yekalon chairman He Yixin said in a news release Friday and reported by Shenzhen Daily.

The company was sued by Belgium-based Unilin alleging patent infringement at a world fair in Germany in January.

The focus of the action lay in the interlocking technology. Unilin has owned patents since 1996 for the method and duopolized the market with another European company, Valinge.

However, Yekalon developed a new interlocking method in 2005 to connect the flooring by vertically snapping in the edges of the planks instead of the established technique of angling and snapping horizontally.

In July 2006, Yekalon and another 17 Chinese flooring exporters were put under a Section-337 investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) for patent infringement alleged by Unilin and its subsidiaries.