HeiQ is headquartered in Switzerland, but listed on the London Stock Exchange. It has developed a range of specialist antiviral, antibacterial and antimicrobial products chiefly used in the textiles industry.
This morning (10 October), HeiQ announced that it had filed a complaint in the USA against ICP Industrial, which is part of chemicals business ICP Group.
In March 2021 ICP signed a five-year, worldwide exclusive licence deal with HeiQ for the use of HeiQ’s Viroblock technology in graphic arts coatings for printing processes such as commercial print, food, beverage and pharma packaging.
Viroblock was initially developed for the Ebola crisis in 2013, and its NPJ03 version is effective against the virus that causes Covid-19.
HeiQ stated: “ICP has breached the Exclusive Agreement by failing to pay royalties or minimum exclusivity fee payments and failing to provide timely and accurate royalty reports. Contractual minimum exclusivity fees for the contract term amount to USD $30m in total.”
The firm is seeking a court order that would require ICP to comply with its long-standing contractual obligations. Due to the exclusive terms HeiQ is asking for treble damages under North Carolina law.
HeiQ co-founder and CEO Carlo Centonze commented: “It is unfortunate that we must take this action against ICP to enforce our agreement, but we cannot allow ICP to use our valuable intellectual property without honouring the terms to which they have agreed. We intend to enforce it in full.”
Centonze said the firm’s Hygiene Technology's Coatings & Polymers business unit continues to progress well.
Separately, HeiQ has also agreed a £1m deal with Touchguard International to acquire a patent portfolio related to the use of antimicrobial overprint varnishes.
This provides HeiQ and its licensees with exclusive rights to use antimicrobials in overprint varnishes in the UK and Europe.
“This enables HeiQ to become the leading player in the European antimicrobial print market and provides substantial growth opportunities,” Centonze said.
HeiQ had sales of $57.9m (£52.3m) last year.
Due to the time difference, Printweek could not reach ICP for comment at the time of writing.
