I4F Celebrates Five Years of Breakthrough Business

• 5th anniversary marked by 66 licensees and 300 granted patents in 100 countries worldwide

WILLEMSTAD, CURAÇAO – I4F, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, today celebrates its first five years of business. The company marked the occasion by confirming that it now has sixty-six licensees, and three hundred patents granted in over one hundred countries worldwide. Additionally, I4F’s flagship technologies, 3L TripleLock and Click4U, continue to firmly establish themselves as the new global standards in flooring installation systems.

I4F’s fast-growing license base, including many of the world’s biggest flooring companies, has doubled in size this year compared to 2017. This is currently generating an annual production rate of flooring using I4F locking technologies in excess of one hundred million square meters. The company’s goal is to reach one hundred licenses by year-end 2019.

I4F was founded on December 3, 2013, and less than a year later, had already signed up its first licensees as well as provided the industry with proof that its innovative locking system was innovative and reliable by successfully passing all the required production and performance tests. Just a few months later, I4F passed non-infringement examinations for the United States and Europe, setting the stage for the filing and granting of its patents all over the world including in the US, Europe, China, Canada and Russia.

2017 was a breakthrough year for I4F. The US Customs and Border Protection Agency gave the all clear for products manufactured under I4F’s licenses, including 3L Triplelock and Click4U, to be imported into the United States of America. This ruling reconfirmed previous freedom-to-operate reports and paved the way for global flooring manufacturers to switch their flooring production to I4F technologies.

I4F formed strategic partnership agreements with leading global players including Classen, Kronospan, Ulrich Windmöller Consulting and Kowon bringing the number of patents it represents to over two thousand in the areas of locking, surface finishing, materials and panel composition, manufacturing processes as well as board and wall Panels.

John Rietveldt, I4F’s CEO, commented, “In just five years, we have succeeded in setting the industry free from the detrimental status quo in which flooring manufacturers found themselves trapped for close to two decades. We have been able to conquer the market by providing the best flooring technologies available and listening to the needs of the industry. We have partnered with global industry leaders and invested in the future by developing new technologies, opening offices in the Netherlands and China as well as adding even more highly qualified professionals to our champions league team. I am proud of our people and grateful to our licensees as well as our partners for the continued support and trust in I4F. We will continue to deliver transparency and accessibility to forward-looking, cutting-edge technologies designed for the greater good of the industry.”

The company celebrated its fifth anniversary with its employees in its Willemstad, Eindhoven and Shanghai offices with I4F branded cakes and traditional snacks originating from Curaçao, China and the Netherlands.