News
Xingraphics claims 'victory' in Agfa patent case
Chinese plate manufacturer Chengdu Xingraphics Co has claimed "victory" in a landmark patent infringement lawsuit brought by Agfa Gevaert in The Hague District Court.
The case, which centres on Agfa's defence of alleged infringements of its Intellectual Property (IP) by Xingraphics, could have a major impact on the influx of thermal plates into Europe from the Far East.
Xingraphics claimed the court had "issued a favourable set of rulings" in the lawsuit, which alleged infringement of Agfa's European Patent EP823327 by Xingraphics FIT and FIT Xtra thermal plate technology.
Xingraphics corporate vice president Safwen Hijazi said: "Today's judgment is a major step forward for our organization, our valued partners and our customers worldwide, who deserve to have access to an alternative thermal plate technology, that is of equal or higher quality than our competitors, without being threatened.
"Our lawyers have demonstrated that Agfa's negative and harmful accusations, which were largely directed at our partners, were unfounded, so this judgment will allow us to put that part of this negative campaign by Agfa to a close."
However, the legal battle, which Agfa said was a defence of its "key patent for positive thermal plates", looks set to continue after the Belgian manufacturer vowed to fight on and claimed that no definitive judgement had been reached by the court.
A spokesman for the company said: "The judgment confirms the validity of Agfa's key patent for positive thermal plates, European patent EP823327. However, the infringement by the FIT plates of Xingraphics was found to be insufficiently substantiated by the presented evidence.
"On the other hand, non-infringement was not proven by Xingraphics either, so the court could not grant Xingraphics' request for a declaration of non-infringement. Moreover, the court allowed Agfa Graphics to request additional seizures of Xingraphics plates in the future."
Agfa said it was now in the process of preparing the necessary "additional evidence of the infringement of the Agfa Graphics patent in order to obtain a decision in favor of Agfa".
Agfa: preparing "additional evidence" of patent infringement
Comments
Paul Rudman - 27 July 2009
The article above fails to mention the bottom line fact is that Agfa were ordered to pay cost to Xingraphics – so it seems odd that Agfa see this court case as a victory. ...so what does that fact tell you !!!
The legal facts from the court case are as follows >
1-MCC patent is valid,
2-Xingraphics is NOT infringing Agfa's patent,
3-All seizures lifted against Xingraphics stock in NL,
4--Agfa has to pay Xingraphics costs.
Xingraphics did not target our campaign to destroy the patent as this would allow the many low quality competitors also into the markets and we are pleased this patent is still in place as this allows Agfa to target them in the future.
Agfa state that they may collate more evidence on infringement of patent however everyone should ask why then didn't Agfa team with the resources they have did not this evidence when they attacked.
I am sure this is comment is Agfa attempt to protect and or minimise impact on their market share in light of the outcome of the court verdict knowing the impact and gains that Xingraphics continue to have in all regions around the world.
This court case has delayed Xingraphics entering the affected markets and was probably another reason they attacked us.
Agfa could not prove in court the Xingraphics technology infringes their patent and it was them who attacked us – why would they do this if they had not collated evidence in the first place, and I am sure they just expected us not to take the matter to court due to the cost of such an exercise and that Xingraphics would just take the easy option and pull out of the affected markets ....but Xingraphics didn't ......
At last our industry has a real alternative CtP plate manufacture
Contact me if anymore information wanted
www.xingraphics.com
Robin Nicholas - 28 July 2009
Interesting comments.
Its good to see that Agfa has been shown that big corporations don't win just because they carry the weight and that there is some type of justice in the European courts. However, lets hope that this doesn't cloud the waters, we need reliable products backed up by reliable companies and supported by good technical advice.
I hope your instruction leaflets are printed in good Queens English and not in the incomprehensible garbage we have become accustomed to when we buy products from the far east.
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