Terex Cranes has filed a patent infringement action against Liebherr Ehingen at the patent division of the Mannheim district court in Germany and has Grove also in its sights.
A preliminary hearing will be held in Mannheim on 6 February 2004 to decide whether there is a case to answer.
The move comes four months after Terex’s Demag subsidiary secured a patent for its Sideways Superlift (SSL) technology, an attachment for telescopic booms developed in 2000 to enhance lifting capacities, particularly when lifting at great heights and small radii, with the boom in a near vertical position.
The first use of SSL on site was in late 2000 by the Ulferts & Wittrock Group from Oldenburg in Germany which used a 500t capacity AC 500-1 equipped with Sideways Superlift to erect wind turbines in Friesoyt.
By the end of 2001 Liebherr had responded by developing a rival product, which it called Y-guy. Like the Demag SSL, it provides lateral support to telescopic booms and so enhances capacities, particularly with the boom near to vertical.
At Intermat in May this year Grove showed a similar lateral boom strengthening attachment, which it called Mega Wing-Lift, on its new GMK 7450, a 450t all terrain.
Asked why it had launched legal action against Liebherr and not against Grove, a Demag spokesman replied: ‘We have started with Liebherr, Grove will follow later.’
Liebherr Ehingen technical director Dr Ulrich Hamme said: ‘We think that we do not infringe any Demag patents because this system does not justify a patent. We think that it is not correct that they have been awarded a patent and therefore we will fight the rights that Demag claims to have.’
Crane manufacturers have always fought to protect their intellectual property rights and technological advantages, although not always successfully. However, in 1999 Liebherr began action against Demag (then Mannesmann Dematic) alleging that Demag’s Unimec boom telescoping and pinning system infringed the patent that Liebherr had for its Telematic system. The dispute was resolved reasonably amicably, with Demag agreeing to pay a licence fee to Liebherr for every crane using the disputed system (which in the end was just the AC 650, which being such a big machine sells in low numbers) and modifying its pinning system for all future models. The telescoping and pinning system that Demag uses now is characterised by the use of two pins at the side of the boom instead of the single pin system used by Liebherr.
