The United States District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin has ruled the Langeman Manufacturing patents, covering the use of filament-bearing tape for trimming polyurethane truck bedliners, were infringed by several industry participants.
“The court’s ruling confirms that many of Langeman’s competitors had unlawfully copied Langeman’s breakthrough invention for effectively trimming truck bedlinings by using copycat products to Langeman’s highly successful WireTrim tape products,” said Bill Schuurman, patent litigation expert with Vinson & Elkins, who represented Langeman in the litigation.
In July 2007, Langeman Manufacturing filed suit against a number of companies for patent infringement of its patents related to the use of filament-bearing tape to trim vehicle liners.
“Langeman was the first company to develop the concept and produce a filament-bearing tape for the trimming of spray-on liners,” said Gary Langeman, president of Langeman Manufacturing. “We obtained patent protection for our inventions and could not sit back while others were deliberately copying our patents.”
In an order issued Sept. 18, United States District Judge Barbara B. Crabb of Madison, Wisc., entered a final judgment that one manufacturing company and two of its dealers infringed the patents obtained by Langeman. In an earlier order granting summary judgment of infringement, Judge Crabb noted that the defendants “do not aruge that there is no evidence of infringement … Perhaps they have other arguments but a party opposing summary judgment may not simply tell the court that other reason for denying the motion are lurking somewhere in the record.”
Langeman has reached out-of-court settlements with each of the defendants. The terms of the settlements are confidential.
Langeman owns patents directed toward filament-bearing tape and its use to trim truck bedliners in Canada, the United States and several other countries.
