Tyco Fire and Building Products (TFBP) has made a licensing agreement with The Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co., The Viking Corporation, and Victaulic Company of America. The agreement concerns the company's low-pressure, early suppression, fast response (LP/ESFR) patented fire sprinkler technology.
TBFP's agreement was on behalf of Central Sprinkler Company, which developed the aforementioned technology prior to the company's acquisition by Tyco.
In the agreement, the competitors acknowledged the claims of Central Sprinkler Company's U.S. patens 6,502,643 and 6,898,917. By making the agreement, prior lawsuits between Central and Reliable and other related lawsuits are being dismissed.
Robert Brinkman, president of TBFP said the agreement was an important one for the patented technology.
"It vindicates the position that TFBP has taken in vigorously protecting its patents on this important technology against challenges brought by competitors, and hopefully will make specification and use of this revolutionary fire sprinkler more wide spread," said Brinkman.
The basics of the technology is that it allows for ceiling-mounted sprinklers in racked warehouse space, and uses a higher volume of water -- but at low pressure -- instead of needing to use sprinklers on the ceiling and at a variety of levels in the racked space. The advantage is that full fire protection is provided with fewer operating sprinklers.
