Ruud Lighting Inc. today announced settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit against Elcast Lighting, Inc. of Addison, Illinois. Ruud Lighting’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleged that Elcast Lighting illegally distributed promotional sales brochures containing large portions of BetaLED copyrighted works, even including copying a registered brand (THE EDGE®) to customers and representatives. The defendant agreed to pay undisclosed damages to Ruud Lighting and adopt compliant business practices going forward.

“Copyright and patent infringement is something we take very seriously and enforce not only to protect our own assets, but to protect buyers from receiving misleading messages by companies vying to get into the LED luminaire business,” said Ruud Lighting president Christopher Ruud. “This is an example of a company trying to jump on the bandwagon by stealing marketing materials and falsely attributing those claims to products that don’t even have the same features. It’s an unfortunate situation for the industry, as products with proven performance do exist and are being adopted around the world. It’s essential to safeguard consumers against false claims, so that informed buying decisions can be made. BetaLED is doing its part to protect buyers and show how to properly evaluate LED products.”

In the settlement, Elcast representatives agreed to cease and desist and will comply with a permanent injunction prohibiting further copying, use or distribution of sales and marketing materials that infringe on Ruud Lighting’s copyrighted works.