Hamont, Belgium—i4F terminated two license agreements: one with Shanghai Hanna Material Co., Ltd., and the other with Anhui Hanhua Building Materials Technology Co., Ltd. These terminations, effective immediately, follow the application of i4F’s compliance program, audit findings and sweeps, according to the company.
Unlabeled products featuring i4F drop-lock technologies from Shanghai Hanna were identified during i4F’s ongoing sweep program, involving in-store purchases in the U.S. and Canada.
The company also said Shanghai Hanna and Anhui Hanua repeatedly demonstrated non-collaborative behaviors, including incomplete or inadequate reporting and late payments and Anhui Hanua refused to settle on the findings of the audits.
i4F said its active compliance program is designed to ensure all i4F technologies, including 3L Triplelock and Click4U, as well as those it represents on behalf of its partners, are not infringed upon or used without the appropriate license agreements. This also ensures that i4F licensees remain first in line with accessibility to the most advanced industry innovations and do not suffer unfair competition from unlicensed/infringing products. As part of this, labeling compliance is also scrutinized during the sweeps to ensure every box of products incorporating an i4F locking is properly labeled using a L2C i4F holographic label.
i4F said it continues to do everything in its power to safeguard its licensees, patents and technologies around the world by implementing a patent strategy providing licensees with a strong and broad scope of patent protection.