North American Green Inc. has recently settled its second patent infringement lawsuit against Colbond Inc. relating to North American Green’s U.S. “Reinforced Composite Matting,” patent #5,849,645. This patent covers various aspects of the technology embodied in North American Green's Vmax line of composite turf reinforcement mats (SC250, C350 and P550). Foreign equivalent patents exist in Mexico and Australia, with applications pending in several other countries.
In the first lawsuit settled in 2000, a Federal District Court judged North American Green’s Vmax patent to be valid. Colbond agreed and the District Court ordered Colbond to cease manufacturing and selling certain of its composite turf reinforcement mat products. North American Green filed a second lawsuit in 2004 against Colbond and its new Enkamat II composite product. Colbond insisted that the construction of this new product fell outside the scope of the 2000 consent judgment. North American Green agreed and expects that its Vmax products will provide performance capabilities that are different than the Colbond product.
As a result, North American Green granted Colbond a limited, non-exclusive license to manufacture and sell certain composite mats not covered by the original consent judgment. The license is subject to various conditions, including a restriction that the product not have two or more layers stitched together. North American Green does not consider the licensed product to have the exceptional performance attributes of its Vmax products and therefore has no plans to offer a similar product, although it is free to do so.
