Hicksville, N.Y.—Add Pergo to the mix of laminate companies turned plaintiff when it comes to the glueless issue. Late last month, the category’s market share leader filed an action in a federal court in New York alleging patent infringement by four companies—Armstrong World Industries, Shaw Industries, Mohawk Industries and Witex. Pergo executives stressed papers have yet to be served as they would rather “discuss the situation with the four companies in the hopes of reaching an amicable agreement without having to go to court.” “This was done with the hope of having a constructive dialogue before taking any legal action,” said Lars von Kantzow, president of Pergo, Inc., the Swedish manufacturer’s North American operation which accounts for 66% of the company’s worldwide business.

The filing is a result of Pergo having been granted U.S. Patent No. 6397547B1 on June 4 for “tight, glueless joints milled into a wood-based carrier.” Pergo had filed for this particular patent on Aug. 10, 2000, but it actually dates back to another filing on March 7, 1995. “Pergo’s new patent is a strategic break-through and a pioneer patent in the field of glueless, gapless laminate flooring,” said Ramio Issal, Pergo AB’s president and CEO. “This is a broader patent than previous ones issued to Pergo,” von Kantzow added. “We’ve invested heavily in research and development on this technology and are happy to see that it is now being recognized by the Patent Office.” The technology in which the patent was granted is already in use on a number of Pergo products, such as Presto.

This does not have anything to do with the dry-glue click system the mill unveiled at Surfaces 2002 and is being introduced on its CertainSeal collection ( FCNews, April 15/22). That technology, von Kantzow noted, is patent pending. In fact, in addition to the patent application for the dry-glue click system, Pergo has applied for more than 30 patents in the last 18 months. As for the legal action being taken by Pergo, von Kantzow said it does not have anything to do with the other lawsuits and claims still being decided upon by the International Trade Commission (ITC) and a variety of courts in the U.S. In some of these instances, including the ITC case, Pergo is actually a defendant.

Currently, the ITC case, which was filed by Alloc, is in the appeal stage as the agency’s original decision was to let everything remain as it has been. That is, there are no patent infringements as the plaintiff has claimed. The appeal process is expected to take at least two years before a final decision is rendered. Until that time, the lawsuits for patent infringement filed by Alloc and the counter suits filed by BHK of America have been stayed by the courts. In other words, the courts will not look at these until the ITC case is resolved as that decision is expected to be used as the main precedent for deciding the lawsuits. At press time, none of the companies named in Pergo’s recent action has responded to the allegations. —Matthew Spieler