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News · 31 comments · Sep 10, 2012

Federal Circuit Court Upholds Blendtec’s $24M Patent Infringement Award

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

Blendtec patent infringement award

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/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/11-1244-1484-1512.pdf. 

*The WildSide jar is no longer available for purchase. Please check out our new and improved WildSide+ jar, or our Vita-Mix jar replacement - Rebel+ Jar.
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31 comments


  • Kenneth Chu Aug 13, 2016

    I shall consider the real one if I like to blend very often.


  • Tracy Nov 17, 2015

    I just purchased a Blendtec blender the other day online and this is the reason I picked the Blendtec over the Vitamix . Integrity counts for a lot in my book. Innovation is still in the works at K-tec I see and I like that . I look forward to more innovation from you guys. Congrats on your victory, you deserve it and I too am looking forward to receiving my blender soon . I am so excited ! LOL


  • Eric Apr 17, 2015

    I have an older KTEK CHAMP that I bought at the State Fair of Texas many,many years ago. Will the Wildside Jar work on this machine? I’ve always had problems doing cold, ice type things in it because there seems to be and air pocket created when lots of ice is added. A recent COSTCO DEMO talked about how the Wildside jar fixed that problem


  • Andrew Mar 23, 2015

    I’m in the market for a quality blender. I was undecided which to pick, until I saw about this lawsuit from a few years ago. That sealed the deal for me. I was already leaning towards Blendtec. I want to go with an innovator, not imitator. Blendtec seems to have the engineering know-how to design a superior product. I will be buying a Blendtec soon. Now I just need to figure out which one.


  • Kelli Farley Apr 23, 2015

    Hi Eric,
    The WildSide+ jar should work just fine on your model, as long as it’s just the blender. If it’s the combo mixer and blender, the WildSide+ jar will not work.

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