Kinze Sues Case-IH

Kinze Sues Case-IH PLANTING EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 26-6-5 Kinze Manufacturing has sued Case-IH, saying its new "lift and turn" planter infringes Kinze's patent on its Twin Line Planter, which was first introduced to the market back in 1984. Kinze, based in Williamsburg, Iowa, filed papers in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, district court, seeking to stop Case Corporation from produc-ing and marketing its "lift and turn" planter introduced last year. Kinze's documents say the Case planter infringes on U.S. patent number 4,721,168, which covers the lift and turn mechanism on the Twin-Line planter. Kinze's patent was issued in 1988 and will expire sometime in 2005. As expected, Case Corporation has denied infringement. Additionally, in the company's answer to Kinze's complaint, Case is questioning the validity of Kinze's patent. Part of the Case defense will be the fact the the U.S. Patent Office issued a patent to Case for its planter design. We noticed that AGCO's new "lift and rotate" planter appears to be even closer to Kinze's design than the Case-IH model. Whether Kinze will eventually level similar complaints against AGCO remains to be seen. When asked, Kinze Manufacturing had no comment.

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