CINCINNATI - A federal court has entered a permanent injunction barring a private label manufacturer from infringing P&G’s substantial Crest Whitestrips Intellectual Property Rights, a press release by P&G stated. Specifically, the Court enjoined Onuge Personal Care (Guangzhou) Co. LTD from manufacturing, offering, selling, or distributing products that infringe P&G’s patents or its Crest Whitestrips trade dress or trademarks.
Earlier this year, P&G filed a complaint and motion for preliminary injunction in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Onuge, a private label manufacturer and distributor of tooth whitening products, and MS International Enterprises LLC., an importer. P&G alleged that the two companies were infringing P&G’s patents, trade dress, and trademarks. MS International responded by agreeing to respect P&G’s Intellectual Property and by removing its products from the market. The case against MS International was therefore dismissed, while the lawsuit against Onuge continued. Following a preliminary injunction hearing on July 28, 2016, Onuge agreed to a consent judgment in which the Court ordered a permanent injunction. This Order is not appealable and ends the case. This case follows a long line of P&G’s successful actions to protect its Crest Whitestrips patents, including against Clio USA, Inc., Team Technologies, Inc., and Brushpoint Innovations, Inc. But in this case, P&G also challenged the trademark and trade dress violations by Onuge and MS International.
“P&G’s resolve to protect our Crest Whitestrips intellectual property has not wavered. We will continue to enforce our IP rights to ensure that our trusted Crest brand, the innovations behind it, and, ultimately, consumers, are fairly protected from infringers, big and small,” said Deborah P. Majoras, P&G’s Chief Legal Officer. “We are pleased that, once again, we have been successful in protecting our investment in innovation that benefits consumers.”
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®.