Innovations4Flooring (I4F) announced a historic 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. This effectively releases flooring manufacturers and distributors from the obstruction created by Unilin’s patent after nineteen years of invalid enforcement and unjustified payment of license fees. The judge also ruled that I4F’s locking technology, Click4U, does not infringe EP’341 in Europe.
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.
Based in Willemstad, Curaçao, Innovations4Flooring is a privately-owned technology company focused on the development of patents and flooring installation solutions. A Dutch private equity group holds a majority stake in the company.
