Since March 2017, Ivoclar Vivadent Inc. and several affiliates (“Ivoclar”) have alleged that our “GC Initial LiSi Press” products infringe their patents of “IPS e.max®” which are Ivoclar’s patent-based products in U.S,A., asserting the infringement of each patent claim regarding (i) compositions, (ii) manufacturing method and (iii) flexure strength in the ITC proceeding in U.S.A. and as a result of our assertion that for (i) compositions they are different from those of Ivoclar’s patents, for (ii) we manufacture by the method different from that of Ivoclar’s patents and for (iii) Ivolcar’s patent claims should be invalidated, on July 2018 the Initial Determination was made (by the ALJ) to uphold our position and following that on December 18, 2018 the Final Determination was made to uphold our position again and to confirm “no violation”.
Our customers who support us continuously may have been worrying about the event but our products are developed by our unique high technology and the above decisions demonstrate that our products do not infringe the patents of the competitor. We are very happy to proudly continue supply of our high-quality products which are supported by our own technology.
We are confident that while we always pay due respect to products of other competitors, we develop our products independently by our high technological and excellent developing power exceeding them. From now on also, we will firmly object to any groundless allegation and will continue to develop our products pursuing ideal ones. We hope to receive your continued patronage in the future.
About ITC
ITC stands for International Trade Commission, which is a quasi-judicial federal agency of the United States located in Washington D.C. ITC has a statutory authority based on section 337 of the Tariff Act of USA (exactly 19 U.S.C. §1337) to investigate the act of the importing which would constitute an infringement on the intellectual property rights and to prohibit such goods from entering at any customhouse of US and to issue necessary determination for the purpose of protection of US domestic industries.