GCCM Market Growth Leads to Patent-Related Preliminary Injunction and Lawsuit

The development of the market for geosynthetic cementitious composite mat materials has occurred swiftly, with this unique barrier market’s innovator Concrete Canvas leading the way. The company has achieved significant international reach with projects in mining, water resource management, culvert rebuilds, oil and gas containment works, and much more. The rapid rise in interest from a broad range of industries has drawn additional market participants.

Standards and guide work within ASTM Committee D35 on Geosynthetics has also helped open the market to more players. With those companies entering the market more forcefully, it was also inevitable that the proprietary commercial lines in such a new materials sector would require closer inspection.

GCCM-RELATED PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION & LAWSUIT

A Polish court has just issued a preliminary injunction against one of the newer GCCM market participants, Eurobent Sp.zo.o, which manufacturers a material branded as Tiltex^TM. That product utilizes a cement/sand fill with a GCL-like structure and is marketed as a GCCM. The preliminary injunction orders Eurobent “to refrain from infringement of Concrete Canvas Technology Ltd.’s patent PL/EP 2027319.”
In an April 23 release, Concrete Canvas notes that the fine for non-compliance is “the highest on record set by the Polish courts for a case of this type.”
Related, Concrete Canvas has filed a suit in Germany against Frank GmbH, which distributes Tiltex™ under the brand Frank BVR 9000^TM, and Eurobent Sp.zo.o jointly for infringement of Concrete Canvas Technology Ltd.’s patent EP 2027319 B1.
In closing its short announcement of these developments, Concrete Canvas emphasizes that the injunction in being preliminary is not yet final and that the company “will seek to enforce [our] intellectual property rights where [we] have grounds to believe that they are being infringed by a manufacturer, distributor, or otherwise.”
Geosynthetica will publish more about these matters as more information comes to light.
For more information about Concrete Canvas’s technologies and projects, visit https://www.concretecanvas.com.

GCCM STORIES ON GEOSYNTHETICA

• Bund Lining at a Petroleum Tank Farm in Athens, Greece
• Remediating a Concrete Flume in a Hydroelectric System
• Lining a South African Mine’s Gravity Thickener Tank Floor
• Diverting Surface Water from Contaminated Spoils at a Former Mine