CYPRESS, Calif. (Feb. 20, 2015) — Sentury Tire Americas has agreed never again to produce the Landsail Trailblazer CLV6 tire that Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc. claimed was in violation of Toyo's design patents, or any tire similar to that design, Toyo said recently.
According to Toyo, Sentury also has withdrawn the antitrust, business tort and patent lawsuits it filed against Toyo in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division, Toyo announced Feb. 19.
Sentury's suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Sentury is barred from filing any future actions based on the same claims.
Miami-based Sentury Tire Americas, a subsidiary of China's Qingdao Sentury Co. Ltd., did not comment on Toyo's announcement.
At issue was Toyo's U.S. Design Patent No. 675,150. Toyo filed a complaint before the International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2013, claiming that 23 tire manufacturers, exporters, importers, distributors and dealers were manufacturing, selling or distributing tires that infringed on the “150” design, as court documents referred to the patent number.
Fifteen of the defendants settled with Toyo, and the ITC issued limited exclusion orders and cease-and-desist orders against the remaining eight in July 2014. Although Sentury was not among the original defendants, the ITC listed the CLV6 among the tires to be excluded from U.S. distribution.