Z-Man Fishing reached a settlement agreement with Joe Renosky and Renosky Lures in its lawsuit involving patent and trade dress infringement. This is the second successful defense of the Z-Man Fishing patents on the popular ChatterBait line of fishing lures.
Last June, U.S District Judge Richard M. Gergel ruled that Renosky unlawfully infringed on a patent covering Z-Man’s ChatterBait bladed swim jig. In lieu of going to trial in federal court, Renosky admitted that it willfully infringed on Z-Man’s bladed swim jig patent and registered trade dress on its hex-shaped ChatterBlade. The details of the settlement were not disclosed, but Z-Man spokesman acknowledged Renosky agreed to compensate Z-Man for lost sales. The court also issued an injuction stipulating Renosky may no longer sell a bladed swim jig that infringes on the Z-Man patent or any lure that incorporates a hex-shaped blade.
“We are extremely pleased with the settlement,” said Z-Man President, Jonathan Zucker. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money developing the revolutionary ChatterBait ® line. We’ve played by the rules, registered our patents, and done our very best to educate the industry about our patents and trademarks.”
“Litigation is absolutely a last resort for us,” added Z-Man General Manager and Executive Vice President, Daniel Nussbaum. “We’ve only brought two cases into the courts. In both instances, the companies involved were well aware of our intellectual property and purposefully and knowingly showed no respect for it. They really left us no choice.”
“Our goal is not to disrupt any other company’s business, so we hope that the industry pays closer attention to intellectual property law – especially as it relates to our patents and trademarks,” Nussbaum said.
