Sawgrass Sues Tropical Graphics and EIC Research

Sawgrass Technologies has filed a lawsuit against Tropical Graphics and EIC Research, an authorized distributor for Tropical Graphics. In the suit, Sawgrass claims that Tropical Graphics and EIC are selling liquid sublimation inks that infringe on their patented innovations in adapting sublimation inks for high-quality transfer printing applications utilizing inkjet printers.

“Sawgrass invested more than $10 million developing the technology and another $10 million to provide software and vertical market solutions to commercialize the technology,” says Nathan Hale, founder and CEO of Sawgrass. “We intend to protect our intellectual property rights and aggressively pursue all companies that willfully infringe on our technology.”
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Sawgrass filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, Columbia Division. The suit seeks a permanent injunction barring Tropic Graphics, EIC Research and all others acting in concern with them from the sale of their infringing ink.

The action follows a similar step taken by Sawgrass against BASF which concluded recently in a settlement of the patent litigation in which BASF licensed products under the Sawgrass patents. (Sawgrass Technologies: www.sawgrassink.com; Tropical Graphics: www.tropicalgraphics.com)