CINCINNATI — Proctor & Gamble Company recently sued industry rival Georgia-Pacific Corporation for trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices, claiming that Georgia-Pacific's Brawny brand paper towels have a duplicate pattern to that found on Proctor & Gamble's Bounty brand towels, according to the Business Courier.
The lawsuit, filed May 8 with the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, charges that the bowtie pattern on Brawny paper towels is a copy of the pattern on Bounty ExtraSoft towels, the story stated.
According to the lawsuit, "Despite the infinite number of shapes from which to choose, and after having sold competing Brawny paper towels for decades without any shapes resembling Proctor & Gamble's Bounty ExtraSoft bowtie mark, approximately one month ago, Georgia-Pacific unexpectedly introduced into the marketplace 'new' Brawny paper towels."
Prior to filing the lawsuit, Proctor & Gamble sent a cease-and-desist letter to Georgia-Pacific in April, but never received a response, the story noted.
Proctor & Gamble seeks unspecified damages and claims that Georgia-Pacific knowingly and willfully copied the pattern to "confuse and mislead" consumers, the story added.
According to the story, in a previous legal battle between the companies in 2003, Georgia-Pacific sued Proctor & Gamble, claiming that its ads for Bounty, which declared the towel absorbed more liquid than Brawny, were false and misleading; Proctor & Gamble lost the suit in arbitration.
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