CINCINNATI, Dec. 12, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Procter & Gamble Company has filed a lawsuit against Fruit of the Earth, Inc. of Irving, Texas, for the infringement of various patents and its Olay Regenerist trade dress.
The suit, filed today in the United States Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati involves the company's Olay Regenerist brand. P&G claims infringement on three patents as well as trade dress infringement of the Olay Regenerist packaging by an entire line of look-alike products sold at CVS Pharmacy stores. Procter & Gamble is asking that Fruit of the Earth be ordered to stop distributing the infringing products and to notify its retailers to impound or return all products.
Procter & Gamble believes that Fruit of the Earth is selling products in packages that copy well known P&G packaging and infringe patented technology. P&G's products are associated with high quality and have achieved enormous goodwill among consumers. Fruit of the Earth's unauthorized use of P&G's trade dress and patents is likely to cause confusion among consumers and allows them to trade on the goodwill established in the brand from years of effort and expense.
"We believe this is a case of clear infringement designed to take advantage of consumer goodwill and business growth that P&G developed through its patented innovation on the Olay brand," said Jim Johnson, P&G chief legal officer. "We are asking the court to stop the distribution of these products because this is such a serious case of patent and trade dress infringement. We must protect the intellectual property of P&G brands," he said.
About Procter & Gamble
Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Gain(R), Pringles(R), Folgers(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Actonel(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella(R), Gillette(R), and Braun(R). The P&G community consists of 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com/ for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
