Ruud Lighting wins infringement case
The Business Journal of Milwaukee
Ruud Lighting Inc. announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit after a court ruled against Elcast Lighting Inc. of Addison, Ill.
Racine-based Ruud Lighting’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleged that Elcast Lighting illegally distributed promotional sales brochures containing large portions of copyrighted materials from BetaLED, a Ruud division that produces light-emitting diode products.
The court ruled that use of the BetaLED materials in the brochures resulted in infringement.
Elcast agreed to pay undisclosed damages to Ruud Lighting and adopt compliant business practices going forward.
“Copyright and patent infringement is something we take very seriously and enforce not only to protect our own assets but to protect buyers from receiving misleading messages by companies vying to get into the LED luminaire business,” Ruud Lighting president Christopher Ruud said.
“It’s an unfortunate situation for the industry, as products with proven performance do exist and are being adopted around the world," Ruud added. "It’s essential to safeguard consumers against false claims, so that informed buying decisions can be made.”
In the settlement, Elcast agreed to comply with a permanent injunction prohibiting further copying, use or distribution of sales and marketing materials that infringe on Ruud Lighting’s copyrighted works.
