Prysmian SpA and one of its subsidiaries have commenced proceedings for patent infringement in the U.K. High Court against Emtelle UK Limited (Emtelle), claiming it has infringed two of its patents. The action follows prior legal actions.

A press release said that Prysmian, and its U.K. subsidiary, believe that Emtelle’s FibreFlow products infringe the U.K. designations of Prysmian’s European Patents EP (UK) 1,420,279 B1 and EP (UK) 1,668,392B1 patents for fiber optic cables. Emtelle has not issued a response to the claims.

“The Group has undertaken intense R&D activities and major investments over the years, and our telecom cables can now boast the industry record for fibre count and density, with many innovative patents filed in the field of optical cables and related technologies,” said Philippe Vanhille, EVP of Telecom Business at Prysmian Group. “For this reason, we are more and more attentive to protecting our technology and investment against any unauthorized use of our patents.”

Prysmian previously filed a similar action in Germany last July against a competitor company related to the unauthorized use of its European Patents EP1668392 B1 (EP ‘392) and EP 2390700 B1 (EP ‘700).

The EP ‘392 patent relates to telecommunication optical cables, and in particular to a telecommunication optical cable with a highly reduced diameter. The patent relates its 288-fiber ezMICRODUCT cable, which uses a 200-micron fiber, which enables the cable to have an outer diameter of only 8 mm. The cable’s design includes 24 fibers per tube, making the fibers easier to identify and fit into standard splicing trays, according to the company. The fiber cable will operate in the -40°F to 158°F temperature range. A company announcement noted that the technology allowed just 24 fibers to be needed per tube. The second patent, EP ‘700, relates to optical fiber telecommunications cables, particularly an optimized stranded optical cable design using bundled cable units.