PHILADELPHIA - A Pennsylvania furniture company is suing a competing business, alleging intellectual property infringement.
Knoll Inc. of East Greenville filed a lawsuit June 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Belnick Inc., doing business as Flash Furniture of Canton, Ga., alleging patent infringement and unfair competition.
According to the complaint, Knoll licenses the rights to the MultiGeneration chair from the company that owns the patent, Formway Furniture in New Zealand. The suit says Flash Furniture is attempting to market and sell the product through its own website and other national major retailers, including Staples, Wal-Mart, bizchair.com and Amazon.
The suit says the New Zealand business has given Knoll rights to the MultiGeneration chair as exclusive sub-licensee, and the plaintiff pays royalties to use the design. Knoll alleges the defendants’ chairs are substantially similar to the MultiGeneration chair.
Knoll Inc. seeks injunctive action, demanding Flash Furniture recall all infringing products and surrender them for destruction. Knoll also seeks: actual, treble and punitive damages; interest; attorney fees; and court costs. The company is represented by attorneys Jason Snyderman, Stephen Gross and Matthew Homyk of Blank Rome in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number: 2:15-cv-03069-MAK.