Ningbo Signatronic Technologies and TaLa announce Resolution of Patent Dispute with Tyco

MONCHENGLADBACH, Germany and NINGBO, China, Nov. 27, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Ningbo Signatronic Technologies, Ltd., and TaLa UG & Co. KG announce a resolution of pending patent litigation involving European Patent No. 0 922 274.

In June 2013, Tyco Fire & Security GmbH, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, filed actions against TaLa before the court of Dusseldorf to prohibit the offering and selling of certain Ningbo acousto-magnetic (AM) electronic article surveillance systems (EAS) labels in Germany. As a reaction to this lawsuit TaLa and Ningbo filed a nullity action against the German part of the European Patent.

Under a settlement agreement resolving both the infringement and the nullity actions and involving Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden and Japan, the parties have agreed that TaLa and Ningbo will withdraw the offering and selling in the said countries of the following EAS label models: T3, K3, H3, T2, K2, H2, RK2, OY, AQ, GPL(2), GPL(3), RL and RH2, until the Patent expires.

The obligation to withdraw does explicitly not include the following label types: T3M, K3M, H3M, T2M, K2M, H2M, NTL, NKL, NHL, RK2M and RH2M ("M-type-labels").

Furthermore it does not include "hard tags" (model labels SPHT and MHT, SPLB, SPLK) or "dummy tags" (model labels KN and RKN).

Referring to "M-type-Labels" the settlement agreement does explicitly constitute that those labels do not infringe the European Patent.

As a result of the agreement the infringement action as well as the nullity action have been finished.

"We are pleased with the outcome of this patent dispute," said Dr Lin Li, Ningbo Signatronic's General Manager. "Ningbo Signatronic has always denied infringing the Tyco patent, and a resolution of this matter by settlement, rather than trial, puts the cost and uncertainty of litigation behind us. Furthermore we do now have legal certainty – even and especially for our customers."

Media Contact:
RA Dr. Rainer Utz
RSW Rechtsanwalte
+49 (0) 7351 503 146
Rainer.Utz@rsw-bc.de