Strand bamboo patent litigation settled

July 14, 2009 - Seattle, WA - Smith & Fong Co., of San Francisco, today announced that it has favorably settled its patent infringement litigation with competitor Teragren LLC, of Bainbridge Island, WA.

The details of the settlement state that no past or present strand bamboo products made by Smith & Fong or TZ Bamboo infringe the Plaehn ‘197 patent, as interpreted by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Importantly, the settlement states that neither Teragren nor the inventor of the ‘197 patent will ever again assert any claim against Smith & Fong or any other China-based manufacturer of strand bamboo products based on the Plaehn ‘197 patent.

“This has been a long but clear road to victory,” Smith & Fong president and founder Dan Smith said. “We never believed for a moment that we or anyone else manufacturing stranded bamboo products in China were infringing the Plaehn ‘197 patent. It is nice to finally have this behind us so we and others that work in strand bamboo can get back to the business of bamboo.”

The Court in January stated in a Markman ruling that laminated or multilayer products, products made from uniform lengths of bamboo, and products not made from longitudinally staggered bamboo segments, were not covered under the patent licensed by Teragren. As a result of this ruling, strand bamboo products manufactured, marketed or sold by Smith & Fong or any other strand producers in China are not covered by the patent rights claimed by Teragren.

A Markman claim construction ruling refers to a court order under Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., a Federal Circuit case affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, interpreting claims as a matter of law.

Smith & Fong and TZ Bamboo were successfully represented in this case by Timothy Boller and Nima Seyedali, SeedIP, of Seattle, Washington, and Omid Mantashi of Oakland, California.

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in San Francisco, Smith & Fong Co. was the first U.S. company to manufacture bamboo flooring in China for sale in North America, offering its initial product under the brand name Plyboo in 1993. In 1996 the firm began producing bamboo plywood, followed by coconut palm flooring and plywood products in 2000. Smith & Fong is committed to sustainability through innovation. For information call 866-835-9859 or visit http://plyboo.com.