Home Care Industries, a vacuum cleaner bag manufacturer, has filed a patent infringement suit against Studley Products. Studley Products, a subsidiary of Ply Gem Industries, is a vacuum cleaner bag manufacturer based in Inwood, N.Y.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, alleges that Studley Products is infringing on Home Care's patent by manufacturing, distributing and selling vacuum cleaner bags with meltblown inner liners.

Home Care was awarded a patent on Jan. 14, 1992 for its development of two-layer bags, which combine standard paper with a meltblown, non-woven liner filter lining. The lining is said to enable the bags to capture and retain more than 99 percent of common indoor air irritants and pollutants in the micro particle range, which are normally released back into the air during vacuuming.

"We have taken this action to protect Home Care Industries' manufacturing and marketing rights for its meltblown vacuum bags," said Steven Bosses, an attorney with Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper and Scinto, the law firm representing Home Care Products. "Our client's Micro-Lined bags exhibit filtration characteristics which are far superior to prior bags which do not contain meltblown liners."

At press time, Studley Products had not yet filed a formal response to the suit with the U.S. District Court. When contacted, Donald Studley, co-president of Studley Products declined to comment on the suit. He did say Studley would "without a doubt file a formal response."

In a prepared statement, Ply Gem Industries, Studley's parent organization said "the patent infringement suit filed against it by Home Care Industries is without merit."

The statement also said Studley Products will "aggressively defend itself against the action in the courts," adding that it expects the case to have "no material impact on the company."

The outcome of the suit is sure to have an impact on the vacuum cleaner bag market as well as the entire electric floor care industry. Both Home Care and Studley manufacture bags for retail as well as for original equipment vacuum cleaner manufacturers (OEM) and private label accounts.

While both companies acknowledged supplying vacuum cleaner manufacturers with bags, both declined to identify OEM accounts due to confidentially agreements.

Currently, the vacuum cleaner bag market is estimated to be 500 million bags annually, or approximately $375 million at retail.

Mark Bosses, vice president of Home Care Industries and inventor of the company's meltblown bag, said the new bags currently represent approximately five percent of the total bag market.

"Five percent is not a stationary figure. By year's end meltblown bags could represent 50 percent of the market," said Bosses. "In addition to tremendous filtration characteristics, meltblown bags can also hold almost two and a half times more than conventional bags."

Bosses said meltblown bags cost approximately twice that of conventional bags, but still offer consumers a better value because they hold more. If meltblown bags were to capture 50 percent of the market in terms of units by the end of the year, that half of the market could be worth as much as $312 million, according to industry sources.

Steve Bosses, Mark Bosses' cousin and the attorney representing Home Care's interests, said Home Care has been manufacturing meltblown bags since 1989. He said Home Care could not, under law, seek damages before the patent was awarded.

The suit, he said seeks unspecified monetary damages from the time the patent was infringed upon, as well as triple damages, attorney and court costs, "And those damages are increasing daily as Studley continues to manufacture and sell meltblown bags," said Bosses. "As with any patent infringement suit, our first recourse will be to seek an injunction to prevent Studley from manufacturing meltblown bags

Source: https://www.vacuumbrands.info/2018/09/one-process-that-has-historically-been.html