Articles

10.02.2011 Laminate flooring

Laminate flooring was invented in 1977 by the Swedish company Perstop, and sold under the brand name Pergo. They had been making laminate surfaces since 1923. The company first marketed its product to Europe in 1984, and later to the United States in 1994. Perstop spun off its flooring division as the separate company named Pergo. Pergo is the most widely known laminate flooring manufacturer, but the trademark PERGO is not synonymous for all laminate floors.[2]

Glueless laminate flooring was invented by Belgian company Unilin in 1997. The "unilin" locking system or variants of it which are still covered by the Unilin patent are used worldwide. However in 1996 a Swedish company called Valinge also invented a glueless locking system sold under the names Alloc and Fiboloc for holding flooring panels together.

Initially the two companies tried to sue each other at great expense without any clear winner, for rights to the intellectual property which also involved a lot of the smaller competition in the process.

Now the two locking systems co-exist and all glueless locking flooring is made under licence from either Unilin, Valinge or sometimes both.

The Unilin locking system is marketed under the name Uniclic and is adopted by Pergo.