Xingraphics wins Dutch patent court case against Agfa Graphics BV

Hague District Court issues favourable ruling in the company’s patent infringement lawsuit with Agfa Graphics BV.

In 2008, Agfa started legal proceedings against Xingraphics in the Netherlands. Agfa claimed an injunction against Xingraphics arguing that the FIT and FIT Xtra plates infringe a European Patent EP 823 327, which relates to a “method for making positive photosensitive lithographic printing plates”, a patent that Agfa acquired through the acquisition of Lastra in October of 2004. In its judgment of 22 July 2009, the District Court in The Hague dismissed the claim by Agfa. The District Court decided that Agfa had not provided convincing evidence that the FIT and FIT Xtra plates infringed EP 823 327. The Court ordered Agfa to pay Xingraphics an amount of € 135.000 in legal costs.
 
In March this year, Agfa again started legal proceedings in the Netherlands against Xingraphics. Agfa stated that it had conducted new tests that do convincingly show that the FIT (Melior) and FIT (Melior) Xtra plates infringe the patent. Agfa therefore asked the Court in The Hague to grant a preliminary infringement injunction. As in the first proceedings, Xingraphics maintained that its FIT  plate technology is its own and that the technology in no way infringes the patent.

Xingraphics argued that the test results that Agfa submitted were not ‘new evidence’, that the tests were deficient and that the results did not prove that FIT (Melior) plates and FIT (Melior) Xtra plates infringe the patent. Xingraphics also itself submitted the results of tests that were conducted by independent institutions as evidence that the FIT (Melior) and FIT(Melior) Xtra plates do not infringe the patent. 
 
In its judgment last week, the Court in The Hague denies Agfa’s claim now for the second time. The Court in The Hague considers, amongst others, that there is no reason to deviate in preliminary proceedings from the earlier judgment on the merits of 22 July 2009.

The court has ordered Agfa to pay Xingraphics an amount of € 120.000 in legal costs. The verdict has been hailed by Safwen Hizaji, (pictured), corporate vice president of Xingraphics.

“The court has dismissed Agfa’s claim once again, which build even greater confidence towards Xingraphics by our customers, existing partners and potential partners who want to continue to access Xingraphics thermal technology,” he said.

“We will vigorously defend our position when allegation are unfairly aimed at us.”