EFI Wins Important Patent Lawsuit on Its VUTEk Inkjet Technology

Electronics for Imaging, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFII) and its superwide format printer unit VUTEk achieved a sweeping victory in a patent lawsuit against Leggett & Platt, Inc. (NYSE:LEG).

A federal judge in St. Louis, Missouri held on July 14 that all of the claims in L&P's U.S. Patent No. 7,290,874 were invalid as obvious in light of EFI's own patent and well known printer design technology. Since the legal dispute began in May 2005, EFI has maintained that it was the first to invent and patent the technologies in question. The court agreed, and, at EFI’s request, invalidated L&P's patent for multiple reasons.

The court concluded that EFI’s UV curing methods were invented and patented (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,457,823 and 6,616,355) before any of L&P’s patents. As a result, the court invalidated L&P’s patent.

The court’s decision is the third in a series of victories vindicating EFI’s innovative UV curing technology. The court previously invalidated L&P’s U.S. Patent No. 6,755,518 on the grounds that EFI invented the technology first, and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed that decision.

About EFI

Headquartered in Silicon Valley’s Foster City, with 23 worldwide offices, EFI™ is a leader in digital print. Offering value-added combinations of hardware, software and consumables, the company is driving the print industry’s transformation from analog to digital color. EFI’s robust product portfolio includes Fiery® digital color print servers; VUTEk® superwide digital inkjet printers, UV and solvent inks; Rastek™ UV wide-format inkjet printers; Jetrion® industrial inkjet printing systems; print production workflow and management information software; and corporate printing solutions.

NOTE TO EDITORS: EFI, Fiery, VUTEk and Jetrion are registered trademarks of Electronics for Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and/or certain other foreign jurisdictions. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Electronics For Imaging, Inc.