Includes patent infringement and appropriating sabinsa’s proprietary documents and customer lists purloined by former employee
Sabinsa Corporation has initiated legal action against Nachurél Ingredients LLC of North Brunswick, New Jersey for Intellectual Property Infringement with a “cease and desist” letter.
The letter addressed to Mr. Velmurugan Shanmugham states “It has recently come to our attention that Nachurél is commercializing products that infringe upon Sabinsa’s intellectual property rights. Sabinsa has a strong interest in protecting its intellectual property and aggressively pursues infringers worldwide. In an effort to avoid litigation, we request that Nachurél immediately stop its infringement of Sabinsa’s intellectual property rights.”
“Specifically, Nachurél is advertising, offering to sell, selling, and/or using products such as “Turmeric oleoresin granules” and “Turmeric oleoresin powder” that infringe Sabinsa’s patents (e.g., U.S. Patent No. 5,861,415). Nachurél is also contacting customers from Sabinsa’s propriety lists and is offering the same products from Sabinsa’s proprietary lists. Finally, Nachurél has copied Sabinsa’s proprietary documents and other materials.”
In his previous position with Sabinsa as Senior Manager – Regulatory Affairs and Manager QA/QC, Mr. Shanmugham clearly had access to all of the documents and in-depth knowledge of the products Sabinsa accuses him of copying.
James H. Hulme, Esquire of Arent Fox LLP in Washington, DC, who is representing Sabinsa in this matter, said “Sabinsa makes the protection of its intellectual property a priority, and it expects that those in the industry will not contribute to the infringement of that intellectual property by those who do not play by the rules.”
“This is just the first step we are taking against clear infringement of Sabinsa’s Intellectual Property, but we are fully prepared to take the matter as far as we must,” said Sabinsa Marketing Director Shaheen Majeed. “As we head into the biggest ingredient trade show of the year at SupplySide West, I urge my colleagues to reject those companies which exhibit clear disrespect for Intellectual Property rights.”
Sabinsa gave October 9, 2015, as the date by which they expect a reply from Mr. Shanmugham and Nachurél Ingredients.
