Leggett & Platt has won an agreement to dismissal of a lawsuit by Vutek, Inc.
Leggett & Platt, Inc., a diversified manufacturer of engineered components including the Virtu line of superwide digital printers for solid and textile substrates, has won an agreement to dismissal of a lawsuit by Vutek, Inc. which challenged the validity of two of Leggett & Platt's U.S. patents on Leggett's technology for UV curing of ink in superwide format ink jet printers.
Vutek agreed to withdraw its challenges to the validity of both of the Leggett patents.
Vutek, a subsidiary of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. (EFI), sued Leggett & Platt in federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri in November 2007, initially alleging invalidity of Leggett's U.S. Patent No. 7,290,874 and later of Leggett's U.S. Patent No. 7,520,602.
These patents were based on Leggett's invention of methods for quickly curing UV ink under the print head of superwide ink jet printers.
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office issued one of the patents after full review of an earlier appellate court decision declaring a related patent invalid, thus recognising the importance of Leggett's invention of the first practical 'on the printhead' UV ink curing technology for superwide inkjet printers.
The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA), also recognised Leggett's pioneering technology by awarding the 2006 DPI Innovator Award to Leggett's inventor, Mr. Richard Codos.
Leggett & Platt
http://www.leggett.com/
