CHENGDU, China, 11 May 2010, Chengdu Xingraphics Co., Ltd. (Xingraphics), a leading developer and manufacturer of thermal printing plates and related chemistry, announced today that the The Hague District Court issued a second favorable ruling in the company's patent infringement lawsuit with Agfa Graphics BV.

In 2008, Agfa started legal proceedings against Xingraphics in the Netherlands. Agfa claimed an injunction against Xingraphics arguing that the FIT and FIT Xtra plates infringe a European Patent EP 823 327, which relates to a “method for making positive photosensitive lithographic printing plates”, a patent that Agfa acquired through the acquisition of Lastra in October of 2004. In its judgment of 22 July 2009, the District Court in The Hague dismissed the claim by Agfa. The District Court decided that Agfa had not provided convincing evidence that the FIT and FIT Xtra plates infringed EP 823 327. The Court ordered Agfa to pay Xingraphics an amount of € 135,000 in legal costs.

However, in March 2010, Agfa again started legal proceedings (“preliminary relief proceedings”) in the Netherlands against Xingraphics. Agfa stated that it had conducted new tests that do convincingly show that the FIT (Melior) and FIT (Melior) Xtra plates infringe the patent. Agfa therefore asked the Court in The Hague to grant a preliminary infringement injunction. As in the first proceedings, Xingraphics maintained that its FIT plate technology is its own and that the technology in no way infringes the patent. Xingraphics argued that the test results that Agfa submitted were not ‘new evidence’, that the tests were deficient and that the results did not prove that FIT (Melior) plates and FIT (Melior) Xtra plates infringe the patent. Xingraphics also itself submitted the results of tests that were conducted by independent institutions as evidence that the FIT (Melior) and FIT (Melior) Xtra plates do not infringe the patent.

In its judgment of today, the Court in The Hague denies Agfa’s claim now for the second time. The Court in The Hague considers, amongst others, that there is no reason to deviate in preliminary proceedings from the earlier judgment on the merits of 22 July 2009. The Court orders Agfa to pay Xingraphics an amount of € 120,000 in legal costs.

“Today’s judgment once again confirms our position that our technology is unique and in no way infringes Agfa’s technology. The court has dismissed Agfa’s claim once again which build even greater confidence towards Xingraphics by our customers, existing partners and potential partners who want to continue to access Xingraphics thermal technology which simply gives them a true high quality alternative to existing technology in the global market. I again want to emphasize that the industry deserves to have access to an alternative thermal CtP plate technology that is of equal to or higher quality than from our competitors without being threatened to make that choice” said Safwen Hijazi, Xingraphics Corporate Vice President. “We have full trust and confidence with our Dutch team of lawyers and their international partners who work tirelessly in presenting legal and technical facts that again convinced the Dutch Court of Xingraphics’ position.” “As Intellectual Property rights owners, Xingraphics respects such rights but we will vigorously defend our position when allegations are unfairly aimed at us”.