Düsseldorf District Court found in favour of Durst in a judgement filed on the 28 February this year regarding German Patent DE 10 2005 006 094 B4.

According to Durst chief executive Richard Piock the court declared that Durst has the right to stop the sale of Vutek printers with white ink in Germany and can claim a royalty from customers that purchased Vutek printers with white ink in the last four years.

The latest case covers a patent, whereas previously the battle was over a utility model – a less rigorous form of intellectual property protection. Now that Durst has a patent and has won this ruling it claimed that it could extend its action against EFI to other countries including the US.

EFI has appealed the decision and maintains the patent is invalid, although declined to comment further.

While the appeal process is on-going no action will be taken against any firms with the Vutek QS machines covered by the disputed patent.

The two firms have been fighting over this issue since 2007; in 2009 EFI claimed that the German regional court had dismissed Durst’s claims.