(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — NEWS: Skell, Inc., dba Bug-A-Salt, has filed suit against the department store chain Dillard’s and its distributor, William E. Connor & Associates, for infringing on Skell’s 2013 patent for a “bug killing gun,” according to Bug-A-Salt’s attorney, Liat Cohen.
The complaint was filed in United States District Court of Delaware, case 1:20-CV-01567-UNA.
In the suit, Loren Maggiore, the inventor of Bug-A-Salt, defines his invention as, “A ‘gun’ that uses table salt as particulate projectiles to stun or kill insects, particularly flies.”
The patented Bug-A-Salt gun, which is safe around children and pets, has been on the market since 2013. More than three million Bug-A-Salt units have been sold; revenue from several versions of the product have resulted in sales in excess of $100 million.
In December 2019, Skell management became aware that Dillard’s was offering for sale a near-identical Chinese-manufactured product it called “Salt War Gun.” That same month, Skell sent a cease-and-desist letter to Dillard’s, demanding they stop selling the counterfeit item. Dillard’s responded they would do so, and later confirmed that the “Salt War Gun” had been removed from all of its stores. Subsequent investigation showed the patent-infringing product was still available at Dillard’s in Florida and other Dillard’s stores.
According to an article in the Jan. 26 issue of Barron’s magazine, Dillard’s was the second-most shorted small-cap stock on the Russell 2000 index, behind GameStop.
Little Rock, Arkansas-headquartered Dillard’s has more than 300 locations in 29 US states.
“I first came up with this crazy idea more than 30 years ago, and never dreamt it would become the international success that it has,” Maggiore says. “With Dillard’s acknowledging our patent but not terminating its sales of its knock-off product, this is a case of the typical small entrepreneur fighting against the corporate giant refusing to do the right thing,” he says.
To contact Liat Cohen, Esquire, regarding this suit, call (818) 579-9996 or email her at https://liatlaw.com/.
Related link: https://liatlaw.com/
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