26.04.2006

Manitou takes legal action against MEC

At this mornings press conference Manitou confirmed that it has started legal proceedings against MEC distributors in Europe for selling products that infringe the patent rights that it purchased from Mayville Engineering five years ago.

Manitou purchased the European production rights, patents and designs for the MEC range of scissors, barely 12 months prior Mayville’s decision to exit the aerial lift market.

After quitting the market, Mayville sold the production and design rights to MEC based in Fresno California. The New MEC business is a sister company to EPW the parts provider headed by Jim Tolle.

The new MEC company redesigned the machines to better suit customer demand and then started marketing them through Platform Sales Europe, trading as Mec Europe.

Platform Sales Europe said that it was unaware of any legal action and that if the new MEC deisgns did in fact infringe any patents, the manufacturer had agreed to modify the design in order to eliminate any such breach.

The legal action centres around the MEC two arm box section scissor design for use on small scissors.

Manitou says that it tried to reach an amicable agreement with MEC but having failed to do so, had no choice but to protect its rights.


MEC recently launched a range of telehandlers the designs of which it purchased from Volvo.