Unilin's IP division has extended the license agreements of the following Chinese WPC manufacturers, giving these companies additional protection on the US Floors Coretec® patents for their respective WPC product lines:
- Jiangsu Zhengyoung,
- Anhui Hanhua,
- SS Floor,
- Changzhou Sennuo,
- Changzhou Jinuo,
- Nanjing MGM,
- Shanghai Jinka,
- Huzhou Beiyakesi,
- Nan Sing Plastics, and
- Jiangsu Tongsheng
Earlier this year, a similar agreement was reached by Unilin with Novalis.
In addition to these agreements, Unilin's IP division also reached settlements with the Chinese manufacturers, Zheijiang Kingdom and Changzhou Lingdian, to reinstate their licenses after being terminated for serious breaches of their license agreements. Both companies accepted liability and penalties for past unlicensed sales and other breaches.
Says Bart Van der Stockt of Unilin's IP division regarding the reinstatements: "These settlements are important for our licensing business as they show our firm commitment to protect our licensed customers who rely on Unilin as the licensor to prevent infringement of its intellectual property. With the increasing popularity of LVT and WPC, Unilin will step up its efforts to detect fraud and underreporting in these categories of products in order to maintain fair and equal competition".
Flooring products which are not reported as licensed product to Unilin, will expose manufacturers, importers and retailers to patent infringement claims since the license agreements with manufacturers exclude such non-reported volumes from patent protection.
