Vi-Jon Inc. Sued by P&G Over Mouthwash Bottle

May 31, 2011

Vi-Jon Inc., manufacturer of private label health and beauty products, has been sued by Procter & Gamble Co. again for infringing its patents and trademarks, this time for making and selling a bottle for a Target mouthwash that looks too much like P&G's Scope Outlast, according to Reuters.

P&G filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on May 27. P&G claims that the bottle, which is being used by Target Corp. for its up & up brand, looks too much like P&G's bottle.

According to P&G's lawsuit, Vi-Jon denied the packaging infringed P&G's intellectual property rights in a May 18 letter, the Reuters report stated.

This is the third lawsuit that P&G, the world's largest household products maker, has brought related to Vi-Jon mouthwash packaging, stated the report.

In the latest lawsuit, P&G claims that the bottle and label shape infringe its design patents, trade dress, trademarks and copyright.

Scope Outlast, launched in August 2009, was packaged in a new bottle to differentiate it from other products.

The Scope Outlast bottle has a longer neck and wider bottom than previous Scope bottles and has a triangular label.

P&G, in the lawsuit, calls the bottle design "unique, non-functional and inherently distinctive."

P&G seeks to stop Vi-Jon from violating its intellectual property and from selling the products.

"Scope has invested in significant R&D to bring this product to market, and we take very seriously issues related to our intellectual property and competitive advantage," said Charlie Pierce, Group President, P&G Oral Care, in a statement. "Vi-Jon is using and benefitting from our intellectual property, which we developed and promoted at great cost. We're taking this action to prevent consumers from being misled and to protect our business."

P&G asserts that Vi-Jon does a large part of its business by imitating P&G's products and packaging.

In February 2006, P&G sued Vi-Jon for trade dress infringement and other claims related to its Crest Pro-Health oral rinse. That case was settled after Vi-Jon agreed to pull its product from the market and not use bottle designs that were too similar.

In May 2006, P&G had sued Cumberland Swan Holdings Inc, a company related to Vi-Jon, again over Crest Pro-Health. That case resulted in an order permanently blocking Cumberland and other related companies, including Vi-Jon, from selling allegedly infringing products, Reuters reported.

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