EFI Wins Important Patent Lawsuit on Its VUTEk Inkjet Technology.Victory Reinforces EFI's Technology Leadership and Strength of IP Portfolio FOSTER CITY, Calif. FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :EFII EFII Electronics for Imaging Inc (Foster City, CA) ) the world leader in color digital print servers, superwide format printers and inks, and print management solutions, and its superwide format printer unit VUTEk, recently obtained a sweeping victory in its defense of a patent lawsuit filed by Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :LEG). A federal judge issued a summary judgment ruling in VUTEk's favor. The ruling decisively concluded that all the asserted claims of Leggett & Platt's (L&P) patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,755,518) are invalid on multiple grounds. Leggett & Platt brought the lawsuit during EFI's acquisition of VUTEk in May 2005 in its home court of the Eastern District of Missouri, asserting that the L&P patent covered VUTEk's ultra-violet (UV) ink curing technology. From the outset, EFI See UEFI. EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface maintained that VUTEk was the first to invent and patent the UV technologies in question. The federal judge sided with EFI, finding that VUTEk's UV curing methods were invented and patented first (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,457,823 and 6,616,355) and as result invalidated in·val·i·date tr.v. in·val·i·dat·ed, in·val·i·dat·ing, in·val·i·dates To make invalid; nullify. in·val all of Leggett & Platt's asserted patent claims. The judge also ordered L&P to pay the costs EFI incurred in defending L&P's baseless patent infringement patent infringement n. the manufacture and/or use of an invention or improvement for which someone else owns a patent issued by the government, without obtaining permission of the owner of the patent by contract, license or waiver. suit. The victory clears the way for EFI to continue to deliver its innovative next generation wide-format UV printers and inks, including the VUTEk QS2000 and VUTEk QS3200 systems which were released in Fall 2006 and are now shipping to customers worldwide. "The judge's ruling vindicates the innovative team that joined EFI from VUTEk," said Jim Etheridge, EFI's General Counsel. "We believed from the outset that L&P's claims were without merit given VUTEk's early entry into and remarkable success in the digital UV printing market against competitive technologies including those from Leggett & Platt. The market decided clearly which technology it preferred." He added, "L&P has appealed this ruling, but we anticipate the Federal Court in Washington D.C. to reach the same conclusion." Last week, Durst durst v. Archaic A past tense and a past participle of dare. , another superwide format printer manufacturer, filed its own patent infringement action against EFI in Germany on the use of white ink. Etheridge commented, "We believe this patent to be invalid in light of VUTEk's prior inventions and we expect that Durst also will lose its patent based on invalidity." About EFI EFI (www.efi.com) is the world leader in color digital print servers, superwide format printers and inks, and commercial and enterprise print management solutions. EFI's award-winning solutions, integrated from creation to print, deliver increased performance, cost savings and productivity. The company's robust product portfolio includes Fiery[R] digital color print servers; superwide digital inkjet printers A printer that propels droplets of ink directly onto the medium. Today, almost all inkjet printers produce color. Low-end inkjets use three ink colors (cyan, magenta and yellow), but produce a composite black that is often muddy. , UV and solvent inks; industrial inkjet printing systems, print production workflow The automatic routing of documents to the users responsible for working on them. Workflow is concerned with providing the information required to support each step of the business cycle. and management information software; and corporate printing solutions. EFI maintains 23 offices worldwide. EFI is a registered trademarks of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and/or certain other foreign jurisdictions. |
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