WILMINGTON, Del., May 22  -- DuPont has won an important appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a patent infringement lawsuit against MacDermid Printing Solutions, LLC. The May 14 ruling advances DuPont's efforts to enforce certain of its patents protecting its award-winning Cyrel FAST thermal flexographic technology.

The appeals court ruled that the lower court had erred when it questioned the validity of DuPont's patent due to confusion over the patent's proper filing date. The appeals court also upheld the lower court's determination "that MacDermid did not dispute infringement" of DuPont's patent covering thermally developed flexographic printing plates. It further noted that "[t]he lower court correctly ruled that DuPont had shown a reasonable likelihood that MacDermid infringes one of DuPont's patents."

When the case returns to the lower court, DuPont will renew its motion for preliminary injunction seeking to stop sales of MacDermid's LAVA thermally developed flexographic printing plates, including products marketed by MacDermid under the names MLT and Magma.

"We are very pleased with the decision and will continue to pursue our patent infringement claim against MacDermid. We are confident we will ultimately win," said Linda B. West, vice president and general manager -- DuPont Imaging Technologies. "DuPont has a long heritage of developing sustainable products for the packaging industry, and the future success of our business requires the protection of its intellectual property. DuPont's goal is to drive innovation to support the growth of printing technology for packaging graphics in key markets globally."

DuPont Cyrel FAST is part of DuPont Imaging Technologies, which provides products for industrial print markets, commercial graphics, textile printing, packaging graphics, signage and electronic displays. The patented DuPont Cyrel FAST technology is used to put color images on a variety of packaging materials such as paper, paperboard, foil, corrugated material, freezer bags and plastic film.