the timber network

The High Court in Hamburg has cancelled the preliminary injunction of Unilin against Faus. In January 2007, the High Court in Hamburg granted to Unilin through an ex parte proceeding an order allowing Unilin to remove laminate product samples from the Faus booth at the DOMOTEX 2007 trade show in Hannover. The same court has now cancelled that order and also ordered Unilin to bear Faus’s costs of the proceedings.
Unilin, which was acquired by Mohawk, obtained the preliminary injunction from the High Court in Hamburg without any prior notice to Faus and without any opportunity by Faus to oppose the order. This preliminary injunction was issued with respect to a Unilin patent that is currently being reevaluated by the European Patent Office because questions regarding its validity have been raised in opposition proceedings. Unilin had obtained the preliminary injunction order from the High Court during Domotex 2007 without informing the High Court of ALL the details and facts regarding this matter.
On January 31, 2007, Faus and Unilin appeared before the High Court in Hamburg to determine whether Unilin should have been granted the preliminary injunction order. Today, after reviewing ALL the facts, the High Court decided that the preliminary injunction should not have been granted. The High Court also decided that Unilin must bear Faus’s costs of the proceedings.
Faus and Unilin originally had a cross-license on each other’s patents but this cross-license agreement was automatically terminated when Mohawk acquired Unilin. After failed attempts at negotiation with Unilin, Faus was forced to file a lawsuit against Unilin on Faus’s EIR/bevel edge patents. In the same lawsuit, Mohawk and Columbia Flooring are co-defendants.