Innovations4Flooring wins historic court case against Unilin, nullifying the Dutch part of its base pretension patent EP’341

• Flooring manufacturers and distributors freed from restraints of EP’341 after 19 years of invalid enforcement
• I4F’s Click4U technology does not infringe EP’341 in Europe

WILLEMSTAD, CURAÇAO – Innovations4Flooring (I4F), a technology company providing flooring installation solutions, today 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.

John Rietveldt, CEO of Innovations4Flooring said, “Today’s win is historic as it represents the start of a new era – not only for I4F licensees but for global flooring players at large.  The industry is now liberated from Unilin’s stronghold that has prohibited freedom of choice and restricted new innovation for close to two decades.”

Contact:
Gilliane Palmer
Tel: +31 6 4189 9515
Email: gilliane@innovations4flooring.com