Friday, July 02, 2010

Things You Learn Reading Business Week

Bet you didn't kinow there was a black market for Handy Humpers, huh?
Interactive Life Forms LLC, the maker of devices such as Fleshlight and Sex-in-a-Can, filed patent-infringement complaints against 25 companies to stop sales of knockoff sex toys in the U.S. that use its technology.

Imports of the Handy Humper and Travel Honeypot brands should be banned because they are among products that violate two Interactive Life patents, the company said in a complaint yesterday with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington. Closely held Interactive Life also filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Austin, Texas, where it’s based.

The patents were issued in 1998 on a device shaped as a flashlight or thermos with elastomeric gel inside.

The complaint names seven manufacturers, 11 distributors and seven retailers that Interactive Life claims are selling the knockoffs, including California Exotic Novelties Inc. in Chino, California, and Nanma Manufacturing Co. in Hong Kong.

The companies aren’t licensed to use the elastomeric gel invention and aren’t paying royalties, according to the complaint.
Sex in a can? I don't want to know.

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