A U.S. judge ordered Mars Inc. to produce certain documents for two companies that Mars has accused of infringing on their patents for certain breath freshening dog treats. The two companies are Science Holding LLC and TruRX LLC. Mars must also pay for one-third of attorneys fees for the two companies and certain costs for deposing expert witnesses.
This decision looks like an attempt to punish Mars for taking unnecessary action against them, to the companies that are being pursued. This specific claim was first submitted in 2013 and is over two patents.
One is called '176 and the other is called '892, both of which pertain to their dog treat products and have been held since 2002 and 2003. According to Mars, the two companies have produced products called "Minties" and "Breathbuster" that infringe on their patents. However, True Science Holding claims that while the products are obviously competitors, there is no patent infringement in this case.
Without knowing the technical details of these patents and intellectual property, it will be difficult to determine who's right and who's wrong (I guess that's the job of the judge). But it's amazing to see all these IP cases play out -- some of which are legitimate IP disputes and some of which are just patent trolls looking to make a quick buck.
Source: http://www.law360.com/articles/761808/mars-to-hand-over-docs-in-texas-dog-treat-patent-row
Hey Shauray,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I enjoyed that you talked about a patent infringement for breath refreshening dog treats. It was also interesting to see how that the plaintiff has to pay for the defendants for brining on the lawsuit. To make this post better, you could talk about the exact claims of the patents in question.
Once again, great post!