According to a Law360 article, Mars Inc. was ordered by a U.S. magistrate judge in a Texas district to provide specific documents to TruRX LLC and True Science Holdings LLC, two companies that Mars claims infringed on their patents for breath-freshening dog treats. Last Thursday, Judge K. Nicole Mitchell ordered Mars Inc. to provide documentation and pay attorney fees for True Science’s litigation while also prohibiting any discussion of the documents being given at hand.
Mars originally filed this complaint in July 2013, when it alleged these two companies of infringing on two of its important product patents. These patents are better known as patent ‘176, held by Mars since December 2002, and patent ‘892, held by Mars since November 2003. These patents pertain to two of Mars’ specific breath-freshening dog treat products, one called “Breathbuster” and the other called “Dentastix”.
According to Mars Inc., TruRX LLC and True Science Holdings LLC infringed on these products with their competition line product, called “Minties”. True Science argues that, while their product is in the same market as Mars’, it does not infringe on their patent technologies. This case has yet to be decided in one side’s favor. For now, both product lines remain in market. I definitely would argue that food patented technologies are difficult to defend as they are not necessarily a purely man-made invention. It will be interesting to see how this case pans out; it might just add a new dimension to the way veterinary food products are developed in the future.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk7aPKUNTv0&feature=youtu.be
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