I4F, a group of companies providing patents and technologies to the flooring industry, announced that it has entered into a patent partnership with Hymmen GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau, a global digital printing systems provider, specialized in flooring.

This new strategic partnership gives I4F exclusive licensing rights for all Hymmen’s digital printing patents and technologies for flooring production, including Hymmen’s award-winning Digital Lacquer Embossing (DLE) technology. This represents an important addition to I4F’s digital printing portfolio, which already includes market leading technologies from Classen, Kronospan and Benchwick.

Hymmen has established itself as one of the world's leading providers of industrial digital printing for flooring and won an Interzum Red Dot Award for its patented DLE technology in 2019. More than 80% of digitally printed flooring around the world is produced using Hymmen technologies.

“The ability to produce high quality digitally printed flooring has become strategically important for the future of our industry," said I4F CEO John Rietveldt. "This latest addition to our patent cluster concept reinforces our promise to licensees to receive the world’s best, most cutting-edge technologies in the industry backed up by a robust patent protection infrastructure.”

In addition to its exclusive licensing rights, I4F will collaborate with Hymmen to promote digital printing opportunities in the flooring industry and will represent Hymmen on future patent protection related issues. Historically, Hymmen has maintained a strong IP position including, for example, its recent filing of a patent infringement lawsuit against Barberán S.A. at the District Court in Düsseldorf.

Digital printing will play a more crucial role in the future of flooring as it enables unlimited design flexibility and can be applied to a wide range of materials, the company said in a statement. This facilitates faster response times to market demands and trends while reducing material waste.

For more information, visit i4f.com.