Starlinger pursues legal action against Chinese plagiarists

Starlinger has initiated legal proceedings for patent infringement against the Chinese companies Wenzhou Huazao Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. and Wenzhou Zhengong Machinery Co., Ltd. as well as a customer of the two companies, Zhejiang Liying Packaging Co., Ltd. The patents in question relate to Starlinger's ad*starKON bag conversion line for the production of AD*STAR block bottom valve bags made of plastic fabric. Among other things, Starlinger developed the triangle bottom forming mechanism (wing opener) used in the machine and holds corresponding patents in many countries, among others also in China.

“As a strong, innovative technology leader in the field of woven plastic packaging we will not stand by and watch how others are using our ground-breaking inventions,” said Starlinger CSO Harald Neumüller. “Like every industry pioneer we have a strong commitment to R&D and need to defend our rights and protect our innovations. We will continue to take legal action against copyists of our advanced technology as well as packaging producers who buy from them.”

Starlinger filed the first patents for the AD*STAR block bottom valve bag and the corresponding production technology developed by the company back in 1995. Over the decades, both the bag and the conversion line have been continuously developed and improved with additional features. Today, Starlinger's ad*starKON is one of the fastest, most efficient and most reliable production lines for block bottom bags made of plastic fabric in the world. Bag manufacturers produce a total of over 32 billion AD*STAR bags on ad*starKON lines, supplying them not only to cement factories, producers of fertilisers and chemical granulates, but also rice, sugar and flour producers.

The legal proceedings against Huazao and Zhengong and their customer are currently underway; a court ruling is expected shortly.

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