f’real seeks permanent injunction and asks the court to order a recall of all blenders that infringe on its patent.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently reaffirmed the validity of a key patent for f’real’s self-cleaning blender technology.
f’real is a supplier of self-serve milkshake, smoothie and frozen coffee products. f’real invented a self-cleaning blender in 2003 that allowed customers to quickly prepare their own milkshakes in a sanitary manner; the company subsequently received three U.S. patents for this breakthrough.
One such patent – U.S Patent No. 7,520,662 (“662 patent”), has now been reaffirmed by the Court of Appeals. f’real’s products are sold at more than 19,000 locations across the United States and Canada, including convenience stores, colleges, universities and military bases.
In October of 2014, f’real filed a patent enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware to prevent Hamilton Beach Brands Inc. and its partner, Hershey Creamery Co., from continuing to violate f’real’s self-cleaning blender patents. Hamilton Beach responded by petitioning the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“Patent Office”) to re-examine the validity of three f’real self-cleaning blender patents. All of Hamilton Beach’s challenges have now been rejected by the Patent Office, as has the subsequent appeal. f’real is seeking a permanent injunction and asking the court to order a recall of all infringing blenders.
“f’real’s invention of the self-cleaning blender created the self-serve milkshake market,” said Dinsh Guzdar, president of f’real. “f’real takes patent infringement very seriously and applauds the Court of Appeals and the Patent Office for protecting its groundbreaking technological innovations.”
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded f’real 16 U.S. patents for its innovative self-serve blender technologies.
