Industry leader Prysmian Group and leading global manufacturer Emtelle Settle claim over patent infringement

Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecom cable systems industry, together with its subsidiary in the UK Prysmian Cables & Systems Limited, today announced they have settled proceedings for patent infringement in the UK High Court against Emtelle UK Limited (“Emtelle”).

The proceedings were issued in November 2020 in the High Court of England and Wales.  Prysmian claimed that Emtelle’s FibreFlow Minicable products infringed the UK designations of Prysmian’s European Patents EP(UK) 1,420,279 B1 and EP (UK) 1,668,392B1 (“the Patents”) for fibre optic cables.

Emtelle has admitted that one or more of the patents in the action were infringed by certain FibreFlow Minicable products sold by Emtelle.

Following extensive discussions, on 28 May 2021 the Prysmian Group reached an agreement with Emtelle to settle the action and other potential claims under the related patent families internationally. As a result of this settlement, Emtelle will take a royalty-bearing licence under the Patents and EP 2,390,700 B1 and their international patent families.  Also, as part of a commercial deal between the companies, Emtelle has entered a supply agreement with Prysmian to be able to offer Prysmian products in certain countries throughout the world including Europe and North America.

Accordingly, Emtelle and the Prysmian companies look forward to continuing to offer world-leading technology to the telecommunications industry.

“We are pleased to see this lawsuit come to an end. Emtelle respects intellectual property rights, and we feel the mutual agreement reached between Emtelle and Prysmian will work in favour of both parties. We will now focus exclusively on what we do best, providing end to end fibre cabling and ducted network solutions.” says Tony Rodgers, CEO at Emtelle.

“The Prysmian Group is committed to the supply and promotion of innovative products as a key component for future-proof sustainable broadband networks. The Group has undertaken intense R&D activities and major investments over the years, and its telecom cables can now boast the industry record for fibre count and density, with many innovative patents filed in the field of optical cables and related technologies”, stated Philippe Vanhille, EVP Telecom Business at Prysmian Group. “For this reason, we are more and more attentive to protecting our technology and investment against any unauthorized use of our patents”.

The European Patent EP ‘392 relates to telecommunication optical cables, and in particular to a telecommunication optical cable with a highly reduced diameter.

The European Patent EP ‘279 relates to optical fibre telecommunications cables, particularly an optimized stranded optical cable design.