Best Medical International Inc., a Virginia corporation, filed suit for patent infringement in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Accuray Inc. and several defendants as individuals on August 6, 2010. The patent in suit, U.S. Patent No. 5,596,619 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Conformal Radiation Therapy” is related to a method and apparatus for conformal radiation therapy with a specialized radiation beam.
The complaint alleges that Accuray has manufactured and sold a product that infringes the ‘619 patent. The complaint also alleges that the individual defendants have aided and abetted Accuray’s infringement of plaintiff’s patent and have divulged plaintiff’s trade secrets and intellectual property to defendant Accuray.
An answer has not yet been filed.
R.E. Whittaker Co., a Pennsylvania corporation based in New Castle, PA, filed a trademark infringement suit against Misco Products Corporation, a Pennsylvania corporation based in Reading, PA on July 9, 2010 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Whittaker has been in the business of manufacturing and selling commercial carpet cleaning products for over twenty-five years. In 1992 Whittaker introduced a carpet cleaning product under the brand name Crystal Dry®. The Complaint alleges that Misco recently started promoting, advertising, and selling a carpet cleaning product identified by the mark “Crystal Clear.”
The causes of action in the Complaint are: trademark infringement under federal trademark law, false designation of origin and unfair competition, dilution of famous marks, and trademark infringement and unfair competition under Pennsylvania common law.
On June 24, 2010 Jones Performance Products, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Bad Ass Custom Truck Parts Inc., a Kentucky corporation, asserting patent infringement.
U.S. Patent No. D549,624 was issued to Jones Performance for a “Truck Fender.” The ‘624 Patent discloses and claims an ornamental design for a truck fender.
The Complaint alleges that Bad Ass Custom Truck Parts has been making, offering for sale, selling, making use of, and applying the design shown in the ‘624 Patent to its own custom truck fenders. Jones Performance Products also allege that Bad Ass Custom Truck Parts created at least one mold for the creation of the infringing product.
An Answer has not yet been filed.
TDY Industries, a California corporation with its principal place of business in Pittsburgh, PA filed suit against Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on June 10, 2010.
TDY’s Complaint alleges that Ingersoll Cutting Tool Company willfully infringed TDY’s U.S. Patent No. 7,244,519 entitled “PVD Coated Ruthenium Featured Cutting Tools.”
The invention relates to cutting inserts for machining mold and die materials.
- Katie Cooper
Alchemy Asset Services, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation, filed a false patent marking suit against Procter & Gamble in the Western District of Pennsylvania on May 12, 2010. The complaint alleges that Procter & Gamble marked, advertised, and marketed various products with expired patent numbers and/or marked, advertised, and marketed such products as patent-protected in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 292 with intent to deceive the public.
Alchemy Asset Services requests damages against Procter & Gamble equal to a fine in the amount of $500 for each instance of false marking. One-half of the damage award would be paid to the United States and the other half would be paid to plaintiff. The specific products named in the complaint include:
1. “Ultra Downy” fabric softener;
2. “Fixodent”;
3. “Always Maxi”; and
4. “Puffs” facial tissues.
An answer has not yet been filed.
N.A. Water Systems, LLC (“NAWS”) filed suit for patent infringement in the Western District Court of Pennsylvania on April 14, 2010.
The complaint alleges that Aquatech International Corporation and Debasish Mukhopadhyay infringe NAWS’s rights as an exclusive licensee of U.S. Patent No. 5,250,185 entitled “Reducing Aqueous Boron Concentrations with Reverse Osmosis Membranes Operating at a High pH.” NAWS seeks various declarations that:
1. NAWS’s process known as OPUS does not infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 5,925,255 and 6,537,456 owned by Mukhopadhyay;
2. Any actions by NAWS relating to promoting the OPUS process do not contribute to or induce infringement of Mukhopadhyay’s above-referenced patents; and
3. Mukhopadhyay’s above-referenced patents are invalid and unenforceable.
An answer has not yet been filed.
- Katie Cooper
A California company and a Nevada limited liability company filed suit in the Western District Court against Pittsburgh company QuestMark LLC for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, false advertising, copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and unfair competition.
The Amended Complaint filed February 11, 2010 alleges the following claims of trademark infringement under the Lanham Act:
1. Defendants’ use of the mark CREATING AN ACCOUNTABLE CULTURE constitutes infringement of Plaintiffs’ federally registered CREATING A CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY;
2. Defendants’ use of the mark ACCOUNTABLE CULTURE constitutes infringement of Plaintiffs’ federally registered CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY;
3. Defendants’ use of the mark KEYS TO ACCOUNTABILITY constitutes infringement of Plaintiffs’ federally registered STEPS TO ACCOUNTABILITY; and
4. Defendants’ use of the mark ACCOUNTABILITY WORKSHOP constitutes infringement of Plaintiffs’ federally registered ACCOUNTABILITY TRAINING.
The Amended Complaint also alleges copyright infringement of a customer proposal brochure and a document that lists training modules used by the California company in its leadership-training and management-consulting services. The document also outlines the key “take away” points from the various modules.
An Answer has not yet been filed.
Posted in Copyright, Copyright Law, False Advertising, Intellectual Property Law, Litigation, Trade Secret, Trade Secret Law, Trademark, Trademark Law, Unfair Competition
Tagged Pittsburgh Trademark Litigation, Pittsburgh Copyright Litigation
Max Co. Ltd., a manufacturer of industrial and office products, located in Japan, filed suit against Penntech Industrial Tools, Inc. in the U.S. Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on December 9, 2009 for patent infringement.
Max Co. designed a “battery-operated reinforcing bar tying machine designed to replace the manual process of tying rebar.” Max Co. claims that Penntech infringed Max Co.’s U.S. Design Pat. No. 527,041 titled “Wire Bobbin of the Binding Machine” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,443 titled “Brake Mechanism of Wire Reel for Reinforcing Bar Binding Machine.”
Penntech Industrial Tools is “a leading supplier of productive cost saving metal fabricating and metal stamping machinery, accessories and related tooling products.”
- Katie Cooper
On December 31, 2009, Eat’n Park, a restaurant group with its principal place of business in Pittsburgh, filed suit against Crumb Corps, a Texas corporation, for trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and unfair competition.
The complaint alleges that Crumb Corps sells “Smiley Faces” cookies which have a design that is confusingly similar to the registered trademark of Eat’n Park and are directly competitive products to the Eat’n Park SMILEY face cookies. Crumb Corps’s cookies are available via retail stores, catalogs, and online. Eat’n Park alleges that Crumb Corp’s sale of cookies using its smiling face design and the SMILEY word mark constitutes unfair competition.
- Katie Cooper
Spring Design Inc. filed suit against Barnesandnoble.com, LLC in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California alleging three causes of action: (1) breach of written non-disclosure agreement, (2) misappropriation of trade secrets, and (3) common law unfair competition. Plaintiff “delivers innovative e-reader solutions and products to the e-book market.”
The factual allegations are as follows:
February 12, 2009 – Plaintiff and Defendant entered into a non-disclosure agreement. February 17, 2009 – Plaintiff presented its design for a dual-screen navigation electronic reader to an e-reader product consultant hired by Defendant.
May 13, 2009 – Plaintiff gave a presentation to a group of Defendant’s executives including a PowerPoint presentation with an overview of its design for an Android-based eReader named “Alex.” The PowerPoint slides indicated that they were confidential and subject to the NDA.
July 23, 2009 – Defendant emailed Plaintiff requesting a summary of Plaintiff’s product development. Plaintiff provided Defendant with an update, including a PowerPoint slide explaining how specific features of Alex represented a unique departure from Amazon’s Kindle 2, the main competitor of Defendant’s planned e-reader.
October 20, 2009 – Defendant announced the release of nook, its Android-based interactive dual-screen electronic reader that included features of Alex.
On November 30, 2009, the Court held a hearing and denied Plaintiff’s Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.
- Katie Cooper
Best Medical International Inc., a Virginia corporation, filed suit for patent infringement in the Western District of Pennsylvania against Accuray Inc. and several defendants as individuals on August 6, 2010. The patent in suit, U.S. Patent No. 5,596,619 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Conformal Radiation Therapy” is related to a method and apparatus for conformal radiation therapy with a specialized radiation beam.
