News

EFI has claimed an important victory in the defence of a patent lawsuit filed against its Vutek inkjet technology by Leggett & Platt (L&P).

The lawsuit, which was filed during EFI's acquisition of Vutek in May 2005, in the Eastern District Court of Missouri, asserted that Vutek's UV ink curing technology infringed L&P's patent.

However, the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that all the asserted claims of L&P's patent were invalid on multiple grounds.

EFI had maintained from the outset that Vutek was the first to invent and patent the technologies in question. The federal judge sided with EFI and as a result invalidated all of L&P's claims used in its lawsuit against EFI.

In a release, EFI said: "[We] believed from the outset that L&P's claims were without merit given Vutek's early entry into the digital UV printing market and its remarkable success against the competitive UV technologies."

EFI added that it was its belief that the ruling concluded any issues surrounding its patent.