Says suit is ‘baseless and without merit’
June 12, 2009
CORONA, Calif. — Anatomic Global, one of the companies sued by Tempur-Pedic this week for alleged patent violation, said today that the lawsuit was “totally baseless and without merit in law.”Tempur-Pedic sued Anatomic and 13 other bedding manufacturers, claiming they had violated a patent on the design and construction of mattresses using layers of visco-elastic foam and other materials.
Anatomic Global CEO David Farley said in a press release that the lawsuit was part of Tempur-Pedic’s strategy of using intimidation against its retailers as a means to protect its market share.
“This is an unfortunate and pathetic attempt by the schoolyard bully, Tempur-Pedic, to push its retailers into submission by implying they will be unable to get product from companies like ours in the future,” said Farley. “Instead of trying to win business by treating dealers with respect, allowing them to market their products and earn a decent margin, Tempur-Pedic is threatening to kill the supply chain that fosters competition and that keeps their company in check from total domination of the market.”
Farley said Anatomic Global has a 28-year history of product design and manufacturing that the U.S. Patent Office has apparently not deemed as relevant “prior art.” He also said the second-generation memory foam products such as those produced by Anatomic were superior to Tempur-Pedic’s products.
Tempur-Pedic filed the suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.
In addition to Anatomic Global, the suit claims patent violations by Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Carpenter, Englander, Classic Sleep, Bragada, Essentia, IR Specialty Foam, Jeffco Fibres, Spirit Sleep, World Sleep Products, Serta Restokraft Mattress and Sleep Products Inc.
Anatomic was founded in 1989 and last year launched the Ecomfort Mattress brand of mattresses featuring its patented EcoMemoryFoam, an extreme open-cell, plant-based memory foam. The product is described online at www.ecomfortmattress.com.