CHICAGO, March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- OLA, LLC
(www.OLAllc.com), owner of HomeBuildersShowroom.com, today
announced that it has resolved its patent-related lawsuit against
New Home Technologies LLC (NHT) and Builder HomeSite Inc. (BHI), a
pair of consortiums founded and owned by many of the nation's
largest homebuilders and building product manufacturers, as well as
many of the manufacturers and big builders themselves. The
lawsuit against NHT, BHI, and a number of consortium founders
concerned OLA's patents and trade secrets.
The lawsuit was resolved on mutually agreeable terms and New
Home Technologies has received a limited, non-exclusive license
under the OLA patents.
OLA and its Internet businesses, including
www.HomeBuilderShowroom.com, were founded by Bruce Fogelson, an award winning Chicago homebuilder and inventor of the U.S.
patents named "Builders On Line Assistant." The OLA patents include
methods for connecting builders, manufacturers, suppliers and
prospective homebuyers using the Internet. The
HomeBuilderShowroom.com web site invited builders to allow many
buyers and builders to make their standard and upgrade selections
online using virtual showrooms that also connected them with
national manufacturers and local suppliers. This unified
supply-and-demand chain and configuration system was advanced both
for its time and the homebuilding industry.
"OLA looks forward to working with the industry to make this
technology widely available to builders and buyers," said
W. Robert Gold, Esq., Chicago counsel to OLA. "We look forward to
seeing the benefits of this innovation for the overall building
industry and the public."
OLA is represented by lead counsel Scott
M. Clearman of The Clearman Law Firm PLLC of Houston, as well as other local counsel and
its Chicago legal team, which
includes Wigoda & Wigoda and Husch
Blackwell Sanders Welsh & Katz LLP. The lawsuit
was first announced in August 2008
and additional information is available at www.ClearmanLaw.com.
OLA (www.OLAllc.com) is a privately held company in Chicago that holds the two U.S. patents named
"Builders On Line Assistant" with other patent applications
pending. The OLA patents, www.HomeBuilderShowroom.com and other
Showroom related Web sites are the brainchild of inventor
Bruce Fogelson, a Chicago builder-developer and owner of
Paramount Homes (www.ParamountHomes.com) as well as his other
varied business interests. Fogelson has other pending patents
and intellectual property, both in the building industry, and
others, such as AdBookOnLine.com (www.AdBookOnLine.com) for
not-for-profits. Fogelson consults on Transportation Oriented
Development (www.TransportationOrientedDevelopment.com) also known
as, "TOD." He is also a founding member of the Chicago chapter of the Home Builders
Association of Greater Chicago and
his company, Paramount Homes, has received 14 "Good Neighbor"
awards from the Chicago Association of Realtors and other
commendations in many aspects of the building industry.
Parties to the lawsuit, OLA LLC v. Builders Homesite, Inc., et
al, were: Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH); Centex Corporation and
Centex Real Estate Group; (David) Weekley
Homes L.P.; KB Home (NYSE: KBH) and E.KB Inc.; Lennar
Corporation (NYSE: LEN) and Lennar.com Inc.; Pulte Homes Inc.
(NYSE: PHM) and Pulte.com Inc.; Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE: SPF);
Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL); Georgia-Pacific Corporation; Hearth
& Home Technologies Inc.; Honeywell Inc. (NYSE: HON); Kohler
Co.; Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS); Overhead Door Corporation;
Owens-Corning (NYSE: OC); Progress Lighting; Square D Company;
Therma-Tru Corp.; Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY); Whirlpool
Corporation (NYSE: WHR); and York International Corporation,
Builder Homesite Inc. (BHI) and New Home Technologies (NHT).
The Builder On Line Assistant (www.BuilderOnLineAssistant.com)
Patents, US #7,076,455 B1 and Patent US #7,254,553 B2, were filed
in 2000 and 2001 and issued in 2006 and 2007 and should run past
2020.
SOURCE OLA, LLC