Barrier preform lawsuit aimed at Pepsico, others

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) supplier M&G is taking its legal case to another court, this time in Italy, pressing for patent infringement against a group of beverage bottlers it accuses of infringing on its patented barrier preform technology. The proceedings, initiated by Cobarr and M&G Polimeri, two companies of The M&G Group (Tortona, Italy), were filed in April against Acqua Minerale San Benedetto, Iper Montebello, and PepsiCo Beverages Italy Srl. The suit claims that packaging materials used to market the 7UP soft drink brand infringe on European Patent 0 964 031 B1 with the corresponding Italian Patent 99109316.2. M&G announced its actions in a press release sent to MPW.

As previously reported here, last year the M&G Group took similar action in Germany against beverage bottler Red Bull Deutschland GmbH and Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co. KG, the German subsidiary of Alpla (Hard, Austria), one of the world’s largest rigid plastics packaging processors.

The patent in question covers, among other things, the molding of PET preforms containing nylon domains of specified sizes and the blowmolding of monolayer barrier bottles made from those preforms. In a prepared statement, Dario Giordano, M&G’s global director of corporate R&D, said the Italian action filed in April 2009 is consistent with the action taken in Germany and seeks to ensure that the M&G Group’s Intellectual Property is respected. “Fundamentally, M&G believes that licensing is the most efficient way to respect another’s intellectual property and I remain hopeful that in the future, those who operate, or want to operate, within the claims of EP 0 964 031 B1 or any other M&G patent will seek a proper license,” he stated.

M&G claims to be the world’s largest supplier of PET for packaging applications with annual capacity of some 1.65 million tones. Its Group sales in 2007 were $2.8 billion, with about 90% of that realized from sales of PET. —[email protected]