Inkjet & Digital Printing
EFI Wins Important Patent Lawsuit on Its VUTEk Inkjet Technology
Friday 17. July 2009 - Victory Reinforces EFI's Technology Leadership and Strength of IP Portfolio
Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII) and its superwide format printer unit VUTEk achieved a sweeping victory in a patent lawsuit against Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG).
A federal judge in St. Louis, Missouri held on July 14 that all of the claims in L&P’s U.S. Patent No. 7,290,874 were invalid as obvious in light of EFI’s own patent and well known printer design technology. Since the legal dispute began in May 2005, EFI has maintained that it was the first to invent and patent the technologies in question. The court agreed, and, at EFIs request, invalidated L&P’s patent for multiple reasons.
The court concluded that EFIs UV curing methods were invented and patented (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,457,823 and 6,616,355) before any of L&Ps patents. As a result, the court invalidated L&Ps patent.
The courts decision is the third in a series of victories vindicating EFIs innovative UV curing technology. The court previously invalidated L&Ps U.S. Patent No. 6,755,518 on the grounds that EFI invented the technology first, and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that decision.