Business News
NOVATEC, INC. FILES PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUIT ON CONAIR GROUP
Monday 06. July 2009 - Novatec Management Estimates Damages Sought Will Exceed $8,000,000
Novatec, Inc. announced today that it has filed a patent infringement suit with estimated damages exceeding $8,000,000 against The Conair Group, Inc. of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania and it will be served on Conair later this week.
According to Conrad M. Bessemer, President/CEO of Novatec, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, Conair’s EnergySmart dual flow line of dryers, apparently introduced in 2007 by Conair, infringe on a dual-flow patent filed by Novatec in 2004 and granted by the US Patent Office in 2006. Novatec is asking that Conair immediately stop selling EnergySmart, which uses Novatec dual-flow technology, and is seeking lost sales damages and indemnification for profits Conair derived from all sales since the product was introduced including those sales announced at the recent NPE show in Chicago. “Novatec has estimated lost sales and manufacturing profits exceeding $8,000,000 and will be seeking full and punitive damages from Conair”, said Bessemer.
Conair had previously filed a patent suit against Novatec in April 2009, but that suit was never actually served on Novatec. The suit was dropped by Conair in June 2009 and the dismissal was ratified by Judge Robert Mitchell in Pittsburgh Federal Court when Novatec changed one sentence in their literature at the request of Conair.
Bessemer adds, “Since the air has been cleared on this trivial matter filed by Conair, it made sense for us to resume with this major patent infringement filing against Conair which we have been investigating for some time, though it was delayed by Conair’s recent unfounded and unserved filing. As we have always said, Novatec has proprietary technology for our IntelliPET line of dryers and other technology using our dual flow patent which was filed years before Conair introduced their EnergySmart product line.
Conair Ownership Had Specific Prior Knowledge of Novatec Patents
Bessemer additionally relates that, “What is additionally unique here is that Conair senior management officials including Christopher S. Keller, the current President of Conair and G. Watts Humphrey, the Chairman/CEO and Keller’s father-in-law, visited Novatec and were apparently given confidential information about Novatec during 2004-2005 when Conair indicated an interest in buying Novatec. At that time (prior to the acquisition of Novatec by a group headed by Bessemer and Steve Maguire) Conair and other interested parties signed a confidentiality agreement and apparently would have been made aware of all Novatec patents and unpublished new patent filings. This would have included the patent in this infringement case. Sometime after this confidential information was returned to Novatec, it is alleged that Conair used this confidential information to incorporate dual flow technology (which is protected by the Novatec patent) as part of their Energy Smart product.
Novatec and Maguire Focus on Intellectual Property
Steve Maguire, majority shareholder of Novatec and the owner of Maguire Products, Inc., emphasized the importance of proprietary technology at both his companies. “We have spent millions of dollars to develop our technology. To date, we have over 130 patent applications and licenses regarding drying, blending and resin handling which have helped make Novatec and Maguire the leading companies in their respective market segments. We intend to protect our investment and will use the courts to our fullest avail to stop the mimicking of our technologies by anyone.”
According to recent plastics industry market numbers, Novatec and Maguire respectively are now the largest US manufacturers of drying and gravimetric blending equipment. According to Steve Maguire, “Our market shares have been made possible by the tremendous push on drying and blending technology by both companies.” According to Maguire, “Novatec and Maguire have over 120 patents today and we are working on ten other new patents right now. All of Novatec’s recent patents have been based on their PowerGuard products which emphasize significant energy reduction for drying – because drying is one of the biggest power consumers in typical plastics plants. Our proprietary technologies with IntelliPET, gas fired heating, membrane drying and other energy reduction technologies have set the standard in the industry and others are now struggling to catch up.”