Deceuninck Obtains Court Injunction Against Bavarian Polymers

Deceuninck North America reports it has obtained a permanent injunction against Bavarian Polymers USA to resolve a lawsuit concerning alleged unlawful appropriation and use of trade secrets.

The suit related to lineal profiles used by Deceuninck’s 2900 and 4300 window systems, according to the Monroe, OH-based extruder. The permanent injunction, entered by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, prohibits Bavarian Polymers, former Deceuninck North America CEO Ralph Weiss, Robert Weishaeupl, Giovanni Menegazzo and Bryan Harris from designing, producing, manufacturing and/or selling lineals used in those systems.

Bavarian Polymers is also prohibited from the design or sale of any lineals interchangeable with those systems and manufacturing any lineals developed using intellectual property that Bavarian or its employees have obtained, or may obtain in the future, from any Deceuninck drawings, dies or other proprietary information, Deceuninck officials state. Other aspects of the lawsuit’s resolution remain confidential.

“This is a significant victory for our company,” states Mark Parrish, Deceuninck North America president and CEO. “This court injunction sends a strong, positive message that Deceuninck North America will diligently protect the proprietary intellectual properties that make our company a world-class leader in the design, manufacture and sale of the highest quality fenestration and building products.”

“BP and Deceuninck entered into a consent judgment expressly providing that ‘the parties have agreed to resolve this lawsuit without any admission of fault or liability,’” says Bavarian Polymer’s Weiss. The company consented to resolve the parties’ dispute, in which Bavarian Polymers had also asserted claims against Deceuninck, because the case was costing the company a prohibitive amount of legal fees and costs, he notes. “BP determined that its resources would be better spent investing in new product and market development.”

Bavarian Polymers entered the vinyl window extrusion market in 2005, opening a plant in Dickson, TN.

With vinyl window extrusion facilities in Ohio and Little Rock, AR, Deceuninck North America is part of the Belgium-based Deceuninck Group, an integrated global organization with extrusion plants and logistics centers in the United States, Europe, Turkey and Asia.