SAFTI FIRST Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit

San Francisco-based O'Keeffe's Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Anemostat in Carson, Calif., Technical Glass Products (TGP) in Kirkland, Wash., and Pilkington PLC, a U.K.-based company, for patent infringement of its SuperLite I-W, a CPSC Category II safety-rated wired glass product. The suit alleges that each defendant currently markets and/or sells a product identical to the patented SuperLite I-W, which is marketed and sold by SAFTI FIRST, a division of O'Keeffe's.

The complaint, 5:07-cv-03535-JF O'Keeffe's Inc. v. Technical Glass Products Anemostat and Pilkington, PLC, was filed July 06, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. According to the document, "Defendant TGP fabricates, markets and sells a product known as PyroShield NT which infringes on the O'Keeffe Patent."

The document also contends that Pilkington provides the wired glass used by TGP used in the fabrication and manufacture of the PyroShield product, in addition to marketing and selling PyroShield NT.

The complaint further alleges, "Anemostat fabricates, markets and/or sells a product it fabricates known as SAFE-Wire which infringes the O'Keeffe Patent."

SAFTI FIRST recently successfully defended its patent rights for another product, SuperLite I-XL, according to a company press release.

"Even though there's growing concern among American manufacturers over patent infringement by foreign competitors, we are especially concerned about the infringement by other U.S. companies within the fire-rated glazing industry seeking to benefit form our product development efforts," says Bill O'Keeffe, president and chief executive officer of SAFTI FIRST. "Either way, we intend to defend our patents vigorously."

USGNN.com™ could not obtain comments from TGP, Pilkington or Anemostat as of press time.

Need more info and analysis about the issues?
CLICK HERE to subscribe to USGlass magazine.