AirHawk International recently announced that it is suing Wild Ass for patent infringement on three of its products, false advertising in violation of the Lanham Act, unfair competition under California law, tortious interference and claims against the owners of Wild Ass individually.
On July 6th, Wild Ass claimed the lawsuit was frivolous and filed a motion to dismiss and stated they were confident the court will rule in favor of Wild Ass. In fact, Scott Parman, co-founder of Wild Ass, stated the lawsuit was a desperate, frivolous case initiated by AirHawk International to eliminate the competition.
On August 1, the court ruled in favor of AirHawk and allowed all of its claims to go forward. In fact, with regards to the patent infringement claims, the court found that Wild Ass’ designs as a whole are substantially similar and that a side-by-side comparison of the products showed that the overall shape of the patented AirHawk seat cushions and the accused Wild Ass seat pads are identical. While the court made several statements about Wild Ass products, one of the most important is regarding false advertising. In Wild Ass’ own filings with the court the company admitted that although its products use “clinically proven medical seating technology” and have medical and therapeutic benefits, these claims are in fact false. Wild Ass has not tested its products for any of the so called claimed medical benefits of its pads.
AirHawk products are made in America, while Wild Ass products are made in Korea.
