Lexington, Kentucky - Mattress and pillow maker Tempur-Pedic International Inc. is suing a number of mattress makers, including Carpenter Co., Sealy Corp. and Simmons Manufacturing Co., claiming they have infringed its patent on mattress construction using viscoelastic polyurethane foam.
Two Tempur subsidiaries, Tempur-Pedic Management Inc. and Tempur-Pedic North America llc, filed a lawsuit 10 June in the US District Court for Western Virginia against companies they believe are violating their patent on proprietary design and construction of mattresses.
The relevant US patent, No. 7 507 468, on "Laminated Visco-Elastic Support," covers a variety of mattress constructions with layers of viscoelastic and other foam materials.
"Tempur-Pedic is committed to making significant investments to enhance the performance and durability of our products. As part of our long-standing investment strategy, we work diligently to protect our proprietary technologies and we will vigorously defend our intellectual property from infringement," said Matt Clift, Tempur-Pedic executive vice president of global operations, and head of Tempur-Pedic's Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Group, in the company statement.
The companies named in the suit are Anatomic Global Inc., Bragada Inc., Carpenter Co., Classic Sleep Products Inc., Englander Sleep Products llc, Essentia U.S.A. llc, IR Specialty Foam llc, Jeffco Fibres Inc., Sealy Corp., Serta Inc., Serta Restokraft Mattress Co., Sleep Products Inc., Simmons Bedding Co., Spirit Sleep Products llc, The Simmons Manufacturing Co. llc, WCW Inc., and World Sleep Products Inc.
Tempur-Pedic pointed out that the patent and lawsuit are not related to the formulation of its proprietary TEMPUR material.
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