Stertil-Koni Sues Rotary Lift for Patent, Trade Dress and Copyright Infringement

Stertil-Koni USA, Inc. has filed a patent, trade dress and copyright infringement lawsuit against Vehicle Services Group, LLC, which does business under the name Rotary Lift (Vehicle Services Group is part of the Industrial Products segment of Dover Corporation).

The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland (Baltimore) alleges among other things that Rotary Lift's EFX line of scissor lifts infringe on Stertil-Koni's U.S. Patent No. 8,191,865, directed to a Device and System for Lifting a Motor Vehicle. Stertil-Koni makes and sells scissor lifts covered by its patent under the mark "ECOLIFT." The complaint also alleges that Rotary Lift has misappropriated the trade dress of Stertil-Koni's ECOLIFT scissor lift, and that Rotary Lift infringed Stertil-Koni's copyright by copying Stertil-Koni's drawings for Rotary Lift's EFX scissor lift. Stertil-Koni's complaint seeks damages of an unspecified amount and an injunction preventing Rotary Lift from further acts of patent infringement, trade dress infringement and copyright infringement.

According to Dr. Jean Dellamore, Stertil-Koni's President, "Rotary Lift left us no choice since it has chosen to infringe our intellectual property rights."