Dallas—Additional LVT manufacturers have entered into license arrangements with Flooring Industries, the intellectual property company of the Unilin Group. Today, more than 35 companies have already entered into a license agreement with Unilin’s IP company for the manufacture and sales of glueless LVT products.
Flooring Industries strengthened its patent position in 2011 by entering into a cooperation agreement with the company Windmöller Consulting, through which the Unilin licensees had the possibility to obtain extra patent protection on specific Windmöller patents that covered certain glueless LVT products. In addition, Flooring Industries is now also able to enforce and commercialize the important Pergo patent portfolio after the recent acquisition of Pergo by its parent company Mohawk Industries. Pergo also has specific patents that cover glueless LVT products. Flooring Industries, Pergo, and Windmöller have already started to take actions against manufacturers and distributors who are doing business in glueless LVT products which do not have a full patent protection.
“Very strong patent protection, together with continual technical support for our licensees, motivated the big majority of the LVT manufacturers to enter into a license agreement with Unilin”, states Bart Van der Stockt, managing director of Flooring Industries’, Unilin’s IP company. “We developed the first commercial clic LVT with our Asian partners in 2009 and have built a lot of clic LVT know-how together with these partners throughout the years. During the last Domotex exhibition in Hannover, we introduced the latest innovation in the LVT business, the Multifit fold-down solution which can be applied to LVT panels.”
The glueless LVT licensees of Unilin’s IP companies currently are: Yi Hua Plastics (China), Eletile Plastic (China), Jinka (China), Novalis (China), Changlong Plastics (China), Kingdom Plastics (China), K&C Plastic (China), Potiloor (China), SS Floor (China,) Jianchen Bonie (China) , Tiantai Feima (China), Lodgi Woods (China), Daou (China), Senhong (China), Licheer (China), Goldenburg (China), Oulong (China), Jinhai Anti Static (China), Runchang (China), Lingdian (China), Beier (China), TianZhen (China), Huajing (China), Hongrun (China), Jihnfeng (China), MGM (China), NOX (Korea), Nan Sing Plastics (China), Adore Floors (Korea), Daejin (Korea), Classen (Germany), Parador (Germany), Unilin (Belgium), IVC (Belgium), Windmoller (Germany), Handsome Plastics (China), Intree (Korea).