A German Court dismissed infringement claims from Durst last Friday, with EFI claiming in a statement that a court expert corroborated EFI's assertions that "Durst's utility model claims were not novel and lacked any inventive step".

Durst originally filed the lawsuit in the Mannheim Regional Court in February 2007, accusing EFI's VUTEk QS series of infringing Durst's utility model DE 20 2005 012 179 U1. Under German law, a utility model is an intellectual property right to protect inventions, very similar to a patent.

EFI has maintained from the outset that it employed the technology in its QS printers well before Durst obtained its utility model.

"We are very pleased that the German courts have shined a light on Durst's false claims that it invented the technology first," said EFI president Fred Rosenzweig.

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