Thursday, December 18, 2008

Furniture and patents - a new blog

I mentioned yesterday that I do love a good trademark fight. Womble Carlyle provides us with more trademark and patent fights in the furniture business with its Furniture Law Blog . Here is an example:

On November 10, 2008, Comfort Research, LLC filed a patent infringement action against Markos & Widly, Inc. d/b/a American Furniture Alliance in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan Southern Division (1:06-cv-1054). Comfort Research alleges that American Furniture Alliance infringes U.S. Patent No. 6,732,391 B2 ("the '391 Patent") entitled "Frameless Chair." The '391 Patent covers a frameless chair comprising a gas permeable outer liner filled with polyurethane foam pieces. The '391 Patent apparently protects Comfort Research's popular "Fuf Chair" shown above. American Furniture Alliance has yet to be served as of the date of this posting. Comfort Research is represented by William Louis King, III of King & Partners PLC in Holland, MI.
Business owners, remember this: losing your intellectual property rights means losing the business. This blog points out how these types of property exists in more than high tech and publishing.