Last month saw a significant victory for ADT Security Services when they won a patent lawsuit in China, against a company that infringed their Sensormatic(R) Acousto-Magnetic (“AM”) tag label technology.
As an ADT partner in the UK, this comes as welcome news to us at ALS as it helps protect the integrity of the ADT security tags we sell and convert, against the threat of cheap, inferior performing imports from China and Asia.
ADT Security Services, a Tyco International company, is the world’s largest provider of electronic security services to more than seven million commercial, government and residential customers worldwide. Advanced Labelling Systems Ltd (ALS) is a UK manufacturer of security tagging and labelling machines that can apply security labels to a whole range of products. Extracts from the recent ADT press release follows:
CHINESE COURT FINDS ZHENTAI SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY COMPANY INFRINGED SENSORMATIC® ULTRA•MAX® LABEL TECHNOLOGY
Court Ruling Prohibits ZhenTai from Making or Selling Its Acousto-Magnetic (AM)
Anti-Theft Labels
Boca Raton, FL – 1 December 2009 – ADT Security Services today announced a major victory in a patent lawsuit in China against ZhenTai Science & Technology Company. ZhenTai was found liable for infringing upon ADT’s industry-leading Sensormatic anti-theft Ultra•Max® label technology. The lawsuit involved acousto-magnetic (AM) labels manufactured by ZhenTai, located in Jingjiang City, Fujian Province. ZhenTai offered its labels for sale both in China and for export abroad. In its decision, the Quanzhou Intermediate People’s Court enjoined ZhenTai from making, using or selling its infringing labels. Furthermore, ZhenTai was ordered to destroy any equipment, molds and drawings used to produce these labels and to pay nominal damages to Sensormatic.Over the last 40 years, Sensormatic has invested substantial resources toward advancing its Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) solutions, which are designed and manufactured to deliver industry-leading performance at a competitive price. Any AM labels not similarly designed may risk impacting the performance of Sensormatic Ultra•Max®- based EAS systems. Examples are failures to alarm as well as failures to deactivate and false alarms, which can lead to customer service issues. If such labels are used in source tagging programs, poor performance may undermine confidence in source tagging and AM labels in general.ADT helps manufacturers tag more than four billion items each year, with over 30 billion products source-tagged with Sensormatic labels since the inception of the program.About the Sensormatic Retail Solutions Portfolio
The industry-leading Sensormatic retail solutions portfolio offers vital loss prevention and operational improvement technologies and solutions. Backed by more than 1,500 patents, the Sensormatic solutions portfolio is sold through ADT and Tyco partners around the world. From the front of the store through the entire retail supply chain, Sensormatic solutions help keep losses lower – and profits higher. Today, over 80 percent of world’s top 200 retailers that use EAS rely on Sensormatic solutions, which include EAS, source-tagging, data analytics and in-store, item-level intelligence applications. Sensormatic forward-thinking solutions also include dual EAS-RFID technology that provides item-level security and visibility in an ever changing retail environment. For more information, visit http://www.sensormatic.com