Starlinger has initiated legal proceedings for patent infringement against the Chinese companies – Wenzhou Huazao Machinery Technology and Wenzhou Zhengong Machinery – as well as a customer of the two companies, Zhejiang Liying Packaging for allegedly copying Starlinger’s technologies.
The patents in question relate to Starlinger’s ad*starKON bag conversion line for the production of AD*STAR block bottom valve bags made of plastic fabric. Among other things, Starlinger developed the triangle bottom forming mechanism (wing opener) used in the machine and holds corresponding patents in many countries, among others also in China.
“As a strong, innovative technology leader in the field of woven plastic packaging we will not stand by and watch how others are using our ground-breaking inventions,” said Starlinger CSO Harald Neumüller. “Like every industry pioneer we have a strong commitment to R&D and need to defend our rights and protect our innovations. We will continue to take legal action against copyists of our advanced technology as well as packaging producers who buy from them.”
Starlinger filed the first patents for the AD*STAR block bottom valve bag and the corresponding production technology developed by the company back in 1995. Over the decades, both the bag and the conversion line have been continuously developed and improved with additional features.
Starlinger says its ad*starKON is one of the fastest, most efficient and most reliable production lines for block bottom bags made of plastic fabric in the world. Bag manufacturers produce a total of over 32 billion AD*STAR bags on ad*starKON lines, supplying them not only to cement factories, producers of fertilizers and chemical granulates, but also rice, sugar and flour producers.
The legal proceedings against Huazao and Zhengong and their customer are currently underway; a court ruling is expected shortly.
Already in the summer of 2024, the Austrian machine manufacturer sued two Chinese companies that copied Starlinger’s patented AD*STAR bag production technologies.
Starlinger is an Austrian machine manufacturing company based in Vienna with production sites in Weissenbach and St. Martin, as well as in Schwerin, Germany and Taicang, China. It is a leading supplier of machines and complete systems for the production of woven plastic bags, as well as systems for plastics recycling, PET extrusion and finishing.
