Utah-based blender company grateful for resolution in 7-year dispute.
OREM, UTAH – September 10, 2012. The Federal Circuit of Appeals on Thursday upheld Blendtec’s $24 million willful patent infringement award, rejecting Vita-Mix Corp.’s appeal of the damages that a Utah federal court ordered Vita-Mix to pay its rival for selling blenders that infringed two of Blendtec’s patents.
“This decision sends a strong message to those who would attempt to profit from the labor and ideas of someone else. Truly it’s a win for America’s visionaries, innovators, and entrepreneurs, who build dreams, create jobs, and positively impact the economy,” says Tom Dickson, founder and CEO of Blendtec, who invented the revolutionary WildSide™ jar, which was the subject of the case.
“As we close this chapter, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to the many individuals—patent examiners, judges, jurors, attorneys, and many others—who devoted their time and effort to protecting intellectual property rights and produced a fair and accurate outcome.”
In the ruling issued September 6, Federal Circuit Judges Pauline Newman, Alan Lourie, and Sharon Prost affirmed the US District Court’s earlier ruling that Vita-Mix had knowingly and irreparably harmed Blendtec by intentionally copying the company’s WildSide jar—a five-sided container that blends more quickly and completely than other containers.
The affirmation should bring to a close the protracted legal efforts by Utah-based Blendtec to protect its intellectual assets, upholding the lower court’s $24 million damages award—one of the largest patent infringement awards in the history of Utah.
Innovator versus Imitator
Tom Dickson, Blendtec founder and CEO, as well as inventor of the WildSide Jar
Since 1991, Blendtec has pioneered high-powered blender technology for use in commercial and residential settings. In 2001 Blendtec introduced the WildSide jar, designed with a distinctive fifth side. Competitor Vita-Mix noticed. After attempting—and failing—to devise a competitive jar of its own, Vita-Mix decided to willfully copy Blendtec’s design.
District court documents cite former Vita-Mix employees, such as Scott Hinckley, Vita-Mix’s marketing director at the time, who wrote the following in an email about a customer: “They absolutely LOVE the new Blendtec container. This is an example of how it stacks up to ours: In our machine: 2 drinks take 30 seconds. 3 or more are impossible. In Blendtec’s new container: 4 drinks in 15 seconds.”
Jonathan Katz, the director of engineering at Vita-Mix at the time, testified that “although Vita-Mix considered other, design-around concepts, it ultimately chose to continue its infringing design.”
An Appeal without Merit
Throughout the legal process, the evidence was reviewed by numerous individuals, including the trial jury, seven federal judges and four patent examiners—all of whom were unanimous in their support of Blendtec’s case.
The Federal Court of Appeals concluded, “We have considered Vita-Mix’s remaining arguments and conclude that they are without merit.…The judgment of the district court is affirmed.”
For the full text of the opinion of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, see http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/11-1244-1484-1512.pdf.
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About Bruce Carlson
When you put out a great product you need someone to write about it. And working for Blendtec, there's a LOT to write about. Seriously. Brochures, ads, emails. Trade show entries, news releases, packaging. Scripts, merchandising materials, manuals. You name it.
So that's what I do as Blendtec's resident marketing/advertising writer. But when I'm not writing about the most incredible blenders on the planet, I'm digging into fantasy books, building train tracks with my kids and taking pretty pictures of cool stuff.
Congrats, I have been on the fence as to which blender I am going to purchase. This seals the deal for me, I prefer not to support a company that is willing to steal ideas from the competitor.
Thanks Rich. We really appreciate your support.
This result definitely made me a happier Blendtec user. Congras!
Congratulations Tom! I am so glad justice prevailed! It has been fun to watch you create and develop your Blendtec through the years. I LOVE my Wildside!
Congratulations. I knew I made the right choice when I bought a Blendtec!
I love almost everything about the Blendtec and the engineering is 2nd to none.
I am VERY happy about your patent win.
Now, what can we do about the non-replaceable blades and is there any way to get you guys to build an all “Made and Assembled In The USA” model? China makes good stuff, but we do too. It is the only thing that has put me on the fence with Blendtec. Any hope in a USA model?
Thanks for the wonderful feedback, Dean!
To address your two concerns:
Our blade assembly is permanently attached in the factory for two reasons: 1) It increases the life of the jar. We’ve found that our jars last longer than others that feature a removable blade assembly. 2) Our single-blade design makes it easy to clean, so removal of the blade assembly becomes unnecessary.
We employ hundreds of Americans. We engineer, design and assemble in the USA. We do our own injection molding, and create from raw steel the drive shafts and other components for our products. Some state laws claim that if a company does not know the origin of its materials — like where its steel comes from, or where its colorant comes from — then the company cannot claim its products are made on this soil. For example, if a manufacturer buys steel from a US supplier who imports their steel from Switzerland, then the manufacturer must declare where that steel came from — even though the raw steel is turned into bolts in a plant in the US. According to some states, those bolts are not made here.
Blendtec is proud to say that we source 90% of our materials from within the United States, and we’re continually working to push that percentage higher.
I have been looking at several models and I like others don’t want to buy from a company that is unscrupulous. Tom Dickson reminds me of my mentor, my father who invented a device (not a blender of course). I couldn’t imagine all the heart ache that our family would have felt had the same happened to us. We have been around for 30+ years and worked hard. We are not anywhere near the size of your company but proud of employing 100 employees and sales reps around the world. Congrats Mr. Dickson and family and dedicated staff. Proud to be purchasing your blender even more. I will hold of my first glass of the item i make in my new designer series blender and toast to your continues success.
LT
I bought a WildSide jar and it works great! Your jar design is by far the best on the market!
I have walked by Vita-mix demos multiple times, at Costco, but was not very impressed until a Blendtec demo. I’m convinced and bought one. Love it! Congratulation on the court winning. I’m glad I made the right decision to buy Blendtec.
We finally got a Blendtec! We were at Costco today and have seen the demo of this product. We’ve been thinking about buying this for almost 2 years. The lady (Erika) sold us the unit! She seems very knowledgeable about Blendtec. She said the warranty is normally 7 years, but if bought from Costco, an additional year of warranty is added, making the warranty a total of 8 years. That’s wonderful! Another thing she mentioned is we can purchase the bigger wildside jar paying just 13.00 for shipping. I did not see where I can do that. Can you help? Thanks and my family is looking forward to our first fresh organic smoothie tomorrow for breakfast!
Hi Maria,
I’m glad to hear that you’re so excited about your new Blendtec. We did have WildSide jars on sale last week as a part of a million dollar giveaway; unfortunately we sold out and no longer have that discount available on the jars.
Congratulations on your new blender! You’re going to have a wonderful time doing some amazing things with it.
We recently ran a Share the Love WildSide jar promotion, in which we gave away $1 million worth of WildSide jars. That promotion has since expired, but keep an eye on our newsletter and Facebook page for future deals!
Further validation to the fact we already knew, Blendtec makes the best blenders in the world, period.