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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAs part of a settlement reached with competitor Kwikset, Schlage Lock Co. LLC will stop making its SecureKey components, which allow landlords and homeowners to re-key locks without taking them apart.
Schlage, part of Ingersoll Rand’s Carmel-based residential division, was the target of a patent-infringement lawsuit by Kwikset, which makes a similar product called “SmartKey.”
North Carolina-based Ingersoll Rand initially refuted Kwikset’s claims, filed in March 2010 in federal court in Delaware, as a ploy to derail the SecureKey launch. The company issued a press release at the time that said it would seek damages from California-based Kwikset for having to defend a baseless claim.
Schlage and Kwikset reached a settlement Aug. 1. Terms were not disclosed, but Schlage said it will stop making and shipping the SecureKey line of products after Dec. 31.
SecureKey, which has been on the market about a year, wasn’t popular, anyway, according to Ingersoll Rand.
“It’s something a very small percentage of our customer base found of value,” said Patrick O’Connell, communications director.
Taking it off the market “won’t be a large financial hit,” he said.
Ingersoll Rand has about 1,300 employees in the Indianapolis area, including 600 at an east-side plant that makes Von Duprin brand panic-door closures and bars. Another 400 work at two division headquarters—residential and security technology—which are in the former Pennsylvania Street campus of Conseco Inc., now known as CNO Financial Group.
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