The law offices of FERENCE & ASSOCIATES, LLC on behalf of the company Doggie Dental Inc. filed an infringement lawsuit against tons of sellers.
The basis of the lawsuit is defendants’ willful infringement of one or more of Doggie Dental’s U.S. Patents, No. 10,477,838 (“Plaintiffs’ Patent” or “the ‘838 patent”). Specifically, by offering for sale, selling, and distributing knock-off versions of these products.
The case was brought in the Western District Court of Pennsylvania – CIVIL CASE NO # 19-cv-1627
COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
Doggie Dental, Inc. (“Doggie Dental”), a California corporation, and Peter Dertsakyan (“Dertsakyan”), an individual (collectively, Doggie Dental and Dertsakyan are hereinafter referred to as “Plaintiffs”), hereby sue Defendants, the Individuals, Partnerships, and Unincorporated Associations identified in the Caption and which are set forth in Schedule “A” hereto (collectively “Defendants”).
Defendants have willfully infringed on one or more of the claims of U.S. Patent No. 10,477,838 (“Plaintiffs’ Patent” or “the ‘838 patent”) by offering for sale, selling, and distributing knock-off versions of Plaintiffs’ BRISTLY® dog toothbrush (“Infringing Products”).
NATURE OF THE ACTION
Dertsakyan is the inventor of the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush and the owner of intellectual property related thereto; Doggie Dental is the exclusive licensee of such intellectual property.
In 2016 Dertsakyan developed the idea behind the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush. June 2017 saw the launch of the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush for beta testing. Over 50,000 dog owners experienced effortless daily tooth brushing of their dogs with BRISTLY. In early 2018, development and testing of a new version of the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush occurred. In June 2018 a crowdfunding campaign was launched on kickstarter.com. In less than two months, $466,000 was raised with the assistance of nearly 11,000 backers and reached its funding goal in one day; the campaign was featured on the homepage of kickstarter.com as one of its successful campaigns. The crowdfunding campaign was continued on indiegogo.com where an additional $534,000 was raised with the assistance of over 11,000 additional backers. The crowdfunding campaign for the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush is the campaign with the highest number of backers and the highest amount raised of any pet campaigns. The new version of the BRISTLY® dog toothbrush went on sale in October 2018 (“Plaintiffs’ Product”).
Defendants have offered for sale, sold, and distributed knock-off versions of the Plaintiffs’ Product which closely mimic the appearance of Plaintiffs’ product and infringe at least one claim of the ‘838 patent. Moreover, Defendants’ sale, distribution, and advertising of the Infringing Product are highly likely to cause consumers to believe that Defendants are offering a genuine version of Plaintiffs’ Product when they are not.
Defendants’ actions have resulted in actual confusion in the marketplace between Defendants’ Infringing Product and the genuine version of Plaintiffs’ Product. Numerous purchasers of Defendants’ Infringing Product have contacted Plaintiffs to complain about the performance of the Infringing Product believing same to be a genuine version of Plaintiffs’ Product. Examples of such complaints include “my dog destroyed your teeth cleaning thing in 10 seconds” and “I was so worried my dog may have eaten parts of it that I had to check him over at the vet.” Such complaints and negative comments are not just made directly to Plaintiffs, but are also posted by members of the public on various websites and social media sites for all the world to see.
Copies of supporting papers available to view below:
