Federal Court of Australia Upholds Key FieldTurf Patents

December 9, 2014 - FieldTurf has been successful in a crucial and long-running legal battle in Australia, with the Federal Court of Australia concluding in a decision earlier this year that two key FieldTurf patents “2004201711” and “2006201560” survived opposition by rival Tigerturf International Limited.

The court said that Tigerturf International Limited had failed to establish that the claims of the patents are invalid and Justice Jagot particularly rejected Tigerturf’s attempt to rely on a number of earlier installations to invalidate one of the patents. As a result, the Court held that the applications should proceed to grant and the Australian Patent of Office has now issued FieldTurf with granted patents.

About FieldTurf

FieldTurf is the inventor and world leader in infilled artificial turf with over 7,000 installations around the world. FieldTurf is part of the ‘FIFA Preferred Producer’ program and is the world leader in FIFA Recommended installations, with hundreds of FIFA Recommended fields worldwide. The company boasts the very first artificial surface to attain FIFA Recommended status due to its superior grass like performance, which football players prefer. In the United States, 22 of 32 NFL teams have selected FieldTurf for their game and / or practice facilities. Hundreds of NCAA D-1 programs play and/or practice on FieldTurf, including such powerhouse programs as Illinois, Louisville, Michigan, Missouri, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Washington State among many others.

FieldTurf is part of Tarkett Sports, a Division of the Tarkett Group. Tarkett Sports is the largest entity in the sports and landscape surfacing industries. Included within the Tarkett Sports portfolio is an impressive range of performance sports flooring products. This product range includes: synthetic and hardwood basketball; volleyball and gymnasium flooring; squash and racquetball courts; floor protection and covering systems; weight room flooring; and high performance indoor and outdoor running tracks, featuring Beynon track surfaces.