DMF Wins Permanent Injunction Against ELCO in Patent Lawsuit

If you are a showroom or electrical distributor that sells recessed lighting products from ELCO, you might want to check the model numbers you have in inventory as the United States District Court for the Central District of California granted DMF Lighting’s motion for a permanent injunction against AMP Plus, Inc. d/b/a ELCO Lighting,  based on recessed lighting products that DMF alleged infringed DMF’s U.S. Patent No. 9,964,266.

The Court ruled that ELCO “and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with them, shall be and hereby are permanently enjoined from (a) making, using, selling, offering to sell, and importing into the United States Versions 1, 2, and 3 of the Residential ELL LED Module products and any products not more than colorably different from these products and (b) inducing anyone to perform any of the foregoing acts.”

The ‘266 Patent protects DMF’s modular LED recessed lighting system that includes a compact LED module with a low-profile heat conducting casting. The LED module fits into traditional recessed downlighting housings/cans or other lighting fixtures, but is also small and versatile enough to fit into standard junction boxes.

The Court had issued a preliminary injunction in March 2019 against ELCO’s infringement of the ’266 Patent, limiting ELCO’s sales and DMF’s damages, but ELCO continued to challenge the validity and enforceability of the patent. DMF prevailed on these issues after trial, and the Court entered “Judgment in favor of DMF that defendants have not shown that the ’266 Patent is unenforceable or that the ’266 Patent Claims 1, 2, 4-8, 13-16, 19, 21, 25, 26, or 28-30 are invalid.”

The inventor of the ‘266 Patent and DMF’s chief operating officer Michael Danesh said, “DMF is very pleased with the Court’s ruling protecting the innovations in the ’266 Patent. DMF invests heavily in research and development and is proud of the training and skill of its employees who are dedicated to delivering premium, innovative products to the industry. We will enforce our patent rights to protect our investments and our employees.”

DMF filed the patent infringement action against ELCO on August 15, 2018 in the federal court for the Central District of California.