URMOND (NL), July 27, 2009 - DSM Dyneema, inventor and manufacturer of Dyneema®, the world’s strongest fiber™, announced today that it has started proceedings in a patent infringement lawsuit before the Court of Milan against Beijing Tongyizhong Specialty Fiber Technology & Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sinotex, (a.k.a. Zhong Fang), a Chinese manufacturer of HMPE (high-modulus polyethylene) fiber and EOS 3 S.r.l., an Italian based distributor.

This lawsuit is the latest in a series of actions pursued by DSM Dyneema to protect its IP rights and reflects the company’s zero-tolerance policy on patent infringement. 

“We remain highly vigilant in identifying any moves that may threaten our IP. We are committed in our pursuit to vigorously defend our IP rights in all markets and business segments in which we are active,” said Christophe Dardel, President, DSM Dyneema. “Our intellectual property strategy enables DSM Dyneema to rapidly drive innovation and to maintain a course far ahead of the competition. This delivers value not only to DSM Dyneema, but also to our business partners who benefit from our extensive patent portfolio.”

The DSM Dyneema patent portfolio consists of well over 100 inventions protected by over 500 filed patents and patent applications worldwide and is continuously expanding all the time.

Recent IP victories such as in The Hague (NL) in 2004, Paris (FR) in 2006 and most recently Texas (US) in 2008 have all resulted in court rulings forbidding the sale of infringing products in their respective countries or regions.

This patent infringement court case refers to patent EP 1 126 052. Beijing Tongyizhong Specialty Fiber Technology & Development Co., Ltd. and EOS 3 S.r.l. are allowed to file their defense.