Milacron receives patent, responds to Mid-America Machining lawsuit

As the patent-infringement suit filed by Mid-America Machining Inc. (Brooklyn, MI) in June against Milacron (Cincinnati, OH) rages on, Milacron announced on July 16 that its Uniloy lightweight, blowmolded container design has been allowed for issuance as a patent. Mid-America's lawsuit states that the Uniloy lightweight container design allegedly infringes a family of U.S. patents issued to Mid-America.

Milacron states that it will "vigorously defend" the lawsuit. "We are very confident in our position," said Robert Spagnoli, Global Product Manager, Molds and Tooling. "Our lightweight container designs are evolved from our own proprietary designs that go back to at least 1992. In our view, this lawsuit by Mid-America simply shows that our lightweight container designs are performing exceptionally well in the marketplace. The key point that seems to be lost on Mid-America, however, is that our product's success stems from our own unique proprietary features and is unrelated to the Mid-America patents."

As proof of its stance in the matter, Milcron announced that on July 13, 2015, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice that the new Uniloy lightweight container design was allowed for issuance as a patent. Uniloy, a Milacron brand, has a long history of product innovation for the development of complete blowmolding systems, pulling from its broad range of blowmolding machinery technologies, including the design and manufacture of blow molds, trimmers, and conveying systems, all backed up with comprehensive technical service support.

"Our products are based on proprietary technology," stated David J. Skala, Vice President and GM, Global Blow Molding. "And when it comes to the end product, typically containers, we have the capability to provide product design assistance to our customers or, as in this case, develop our own proprietary designs that we openly license to our customers. We respect other companies' technology rights, just as we expect other companies to respect our technology rights."