More lawsuits hit the ag industry. Deere and Company is suing Kinze and Ag Leader for alleged patent infringement concerning the company’s high-speed planter.
The company says Kinze and Ag Leader’s own high-speed planter designs are too similar to John Deere’s. According to the complaint:
“Kinze infringes the Asserted Patents when it manufactures, has manufactured, sells, offers to sell, and/or uses in the United States at least its True Speed high-speed planting system… Ag Lead infringes the Asserted Patents when it manufactures, has manufactured, sells, offers to sell and/or uses in the United States at least its SureSpeed high-speed planting system, which is sold as an after-market retrofit kit, capable of being incorporated into existing planters.”
Kinze and Ag Leader released a joint statement, denying all allegations.
“In the interest of keeping you informed about these accusations, we want to provide the following information regarding this action. Kinze and Ag Leader deny all allegations of infringement. In a technology-based industry such as ours, these types of disputes are not uncommon. This legal action has absolutely no effect on the availability of current Kinze and Ag Leader products.”
The lawsuit was filed in December. Be sure to check back at Agweb.com for more updates as information becomes available.
