Dallas—Flooring Industries (FI), the intellectual property (IP) company of the Unilin Group (which is owned by Mohawk), has entered into a cooperation agreement with Panchem Industries, the New Zealand firm that owns the rights to commercialize Vitec technology.
The patented Vitec technology provides greater water and moisture resistance and increases the strength and fire retardance of cellulose-based substrates such as HDF/MDF, OSB, plywood, and Triboard, by treating them with specific chemicals.
Peter Russel, director of Panchem, said, “We successfully built a plant in New Zealand, so we were of the opinion the time was right to have a worldwide introduction to the technology. We don’t have any interest in setting up other manufacturing facilities, and believe licensing the technology is the best business model.”
He explained FI’s enforcement and commercializing of its clic patents caught Panchem’s attention, as did its offering of services to companies that had unexploited IP. “Partnering with FI was the right thing to do, given its experience and track record in licensing out patented technology.”
Bart Van der Stockt, FI’s managing director, noted Mohawk has, through its Unilin business, focused on the exploitation of patent rights. “Today, almost every company in the world active in hardwood flooring has protection under Unilin’s glueless patent portfolio. Unilin has built much expertise in licensing our technologies throughout the years.”
He added, “There are many companies that have patented technologies, but are missing the know-how to market these innovations. We decided to cooperate with these companies becaue they have valuable technology and we have the expertise and customer network. This agreement is an example of such a cooperation.”
For more, visit uniclic.com.