i4F secures additional protection for its licensees on numerous Windmöller, USFloors, Shaw Industries and Classen patents featuring new material products with a locking

• New protection covers all new materials, including LVT, SPC and EPC products, with locking
• More freedom to operate on new material products featuring i4F locking technologies
• Offered to i4F licensees

HAMONT, BELGIUM – i4F®, a group of companies bringing meaningful innovations to the flooring industry, today announced that it has secured additional worldwide protection for its licensees on numerous patents from Windmöller, USFloors, Shaw Industries and Classen.

From now on, i4F licensees have the possibility to sign up for an expanded scope of protection and to access more technologies when producing and selling new materials products featuring i4F locking technologies.  This increased protection comprises floor covering patents using a locking on both the long and/or short sides – with or without a bevel – featuring a thermoplastic- or mineral based core. These floor coverings are also known as luxury vinyl tile (LVT), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), multi-layer flooring (MLF), waterproof polymer core (WPC), solid polymer composite (SPC), expanded polymer core (EPC), magnesium oxide (MgO), polypropylene (PP) or polyurethane (PU).

i4F’s existing strategic partnership with Classen, in place since 2017, is unchanged.  This partnership continues to give i4F exclusive sub-licensing rights for one of Classen’s other IP portfolios, comprising over five hundred patents, covering key flooring materials as well as important inventions including digital printing and liquid laminate technology (LLT).

i4F believes this new protection offers its licensees increased freedom to operate enabling an increased focus on market opportunities.  This reinforces the company’s vision to facilitate accessibility to new innovations all the way to end users, and further demonstrates its ability to secure strong partnerships for the benefit of its licensees.