Toyo, Sentury reach agreement
By：admin Updated：2015-02-26 15:19:50
CYPRESS, Calif.—Sentury Tires America has agreed never again to produce the Landsail Trailblazer CLV6 tire that Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. claimed was in violation of Toyo's design patents, or any tire similar to that design, according to a Toyo news release.
Also, Sentury has withdrawn the antitrust, business tort and patent suits it filed against Toyo in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division, Toyo announced Feb. 19.
Sentury's suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Sentury is barred from filing any future actions based on the same claims.
At issue was Toyo's U.S. Design Patent No. 675,150. Toyo filed a complaint before the International Trade Commission in 2013, claiming that 23 tire manufacturers, exporters, importers, distributors and dealers were manufacturing, selling or distributing tires that infringed on the “150” design, as court documents referred to it.
Fifteen of the defendants settled with Toyo, and the ITC issued limited exclusion orders and cease-and-desist orders against the remaining eight in July 2014. But although Sentury was not among the original defendants, the ITC listed the CLV6 among the tires to be excluded from U.S. distribution.
Sentury filed suit against Toyo in September 2014. “It is not uncommon to settle an ITC proceeding with settlement agreements that exclude the importation of allegedly infringing products,” Sentury wrote in its complaint. “However, such agreements can only be lawful where they are generally limited to respondents in the ITC proceeding.”
Toyo filed a motion in November 2014 to dismiss Sentury's antitrust claims. Sentury subsequently revised its complaint, dropping the antitrust claims and asking the court to consider only two claims of tortious interference and one of violating California's Business & Professions Code.
Toyo filed for dismissal of the last three claims Jan. 30. In any ITC petition for relief, Toyo said, it is the ITC itself that decides the merits of the case and initiates any remedy. This immunized Toyo from Sentury's claim that the action was a sham, the tire maker said.