Rubbermaid Targets Capsa Solutions over Design Patents

Rubbermaid Medical Solutions (plaintiff) filed a suit against Capsa Solutions (defendant) for patent infringement in the U.S. District Court of North Carolina (case no. 3:12-cv-00813) on Tuesday, December 10, 2012.

Rubbermaid Incorporated trades under the name of Rubbermaid Medical Solutions. They are a provider of clinical workstations and mobile computing solutions for healthcare facilities. Their product offerings include ergonomically designed mobile computing carts, medication carts and wall-mounted units. Capsa Solutions are in the development and manufacturing of mobile computer workstations, medical carts, health IT mounting solutions, and medication management systems used in healthcare facilities throughout the world.

The patents involved in the suit are:

Patent Numbers Current Assignee[*]	Issued Date	Expiration Date[†]	Title
USD504259 Rubbermaid Incorporated	Apr 26, 2005	Apr 26, 2019	Drawer face
USD504260 Rubbermaid Incorporated	Apr 26, 2005	Apr 26, 2019	Drawer face

Note: Table information is sourced from Maxval’s Assignment Database and Litigation Database.

Capsa once teamed up with Rubbermaid in the manufacture of Rubbermaid’s transfer cart products. The drawers used in the transfer cart products were manufactured by a third party and shipped to Capsa for inclusion in the finished transfer carts. Later Capsa manufactured its own medication cart products and canceled its partnership with Rubbermaid.  

Plaintiff alleges that the defendant infringes the above design patents by using drawers that resemble the ornamental design of the ‘259 (see Fig. 1) and ‘260 (see Fig. 2) patents in their medication carts including the products MX Series Medication Workstation and MX Series Bin Transfer Cart (the Accused Products). The complaint also alleges that the drawers (see Fig. 3) manufactured by the defendant infringe the trade dress (blue color). 

 

Rubbermaid has recently filed patent infringement cases against the following companies:

Defendant	Case Number	Date Filed	Status
Centrex Plastics	3:12-cv-00702	10/23/2012	Pending
Everstrong Products	1:12-cv-08364	10/18/2012	Pending
Capsa Solutions	3:12-cv-00611	09/17/2012	Pending
Ergotron	3:12-cv-00416	07/10/2012	Pending

If you are interested in knowing more about the cases filed by Rubbermaid, please contact us.

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[*] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[†] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.