Lutterworth, Leicestershire-based Tech-ni-Fold filed the case last year against the US manufacturer, following a successful lawsuit against two Minnesota-based companies, Update and D&R Bindery Solutions in 2011.
Judge Virginia M Kendall ruled that Rosback’s heads do not infringe Tech-ni-Fold’s US Patent No 6,572,519, in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, on 29 September.
Rosback said the ruling was “a complete vindication of the TrueScore-Pro design", which has been on sale in the US since 2013.
Vice-president of sales Ron Bowman said: “The TrueScore-Pro system is a truly innovative product that has performed remarkably well. It really does eliminate the cracking associated with scoring and folding of digitally printed material. It has proven to be a versatile, simple solution that is faster and more economical than other products and methods.”
He added: “While litigation is expensive, the real cost is the distraction and time spent defending a case. We are glad to have it behind us.”
Now Worksop, Nottinghamshire-based Don Valley Graphic Equipment will be sole distributor of the Rosback heads in the UK. Owner Derek Wood said he would now actively sell and promote them, with a delivery expected by the end of the month.
“We have had a couple of prototype units in for beta testing and we are discussing the pricing at the moment.
"The TrueScore-Pro is a unit that goes on most paper folding machines currently out there, including Stahl and MBO. It does the same thing as the Tech-ni-Fold product but it does it in a different way.
“Most print factories have some kind of aftermarket creasing device on their folding equipment. There’s a big market out there for these things."
But Tech-ni-Fold managing director Graham Harris said he was not worried about the competition.
“Will I be shaking in my boots tomorrow? Absolutely not. At the end of the day people want to buy the best," he said.
"People are free to choose what they want and we would say we work with the best manufacturers in the world, we’ve been supplying Heidelberg for 16 years and we are always developing new technology.
“If we get 99 happy customers out of 100, we develop something for the one unhappy customer. We have 500 creasing products. If someone wanted to catch up to us it would take a long time.”
He said that only 1% of sales came from the contested patent but he went ahead with the case because he felt strongly about defending his IP and printing technology.
“We are all absolutely bewildered,” he said of the judge’s decision. “I was 90% sure I was going to win and I’ve now lost faith in US law. But we decided it wasn’t worth challenging.
“I feel let down but I feel like I’ve got to let it go. I’ve got no hard feelings against Rosback. We have 70 other patents involving creasing.”
He added that the company had won five previous patent infringement cases.
Rosback said it was proud to have been awarded more than 160 patents in its 135-year history.
