Sami-Sabinsa Group has been awarded more than $1 m in attorney’s fees and costs against Prakruti Products. The award, issued by a federal judge in New Jersey, came in the wake of the company’s successful prosecution of Prakruti’s discovery misconduct. The magistrate judge previously imposed non-monetary sanctions on Prakruti, and that ruling was affirmed by the district judge on appeal. The award is the latest development in a years-long discovery battle between the companies that began in June 2017, when the court reopened a settled case involving Prakruti’s infringement of Sami-Sabinsa’s patented Curcumin C3 Complex.
The judge denied all appeals, upholding the sanctions based on Prakruti’s “repeated lack of diligence in discovery coupled with the repeated inaccurate assurances . . . [and] the obvious foot‐dragging or obstruction.”
The court has awarded Sabinsa $1,004,659.93, more than 92% of the requested attorney’s fees and costs. The court also rejected the company’s “scattershot approach” and “the bases for [Prakruti’s objections,] which are in many cases unsubstantiated or indecipherable—as if hoping that something will stick.”
“This decision is the latest in a long line of cases in which we have prevailed against infringers of our patents,” said Sami-Sabinsa founder Dr Muhammed Majeed. “We are grateful for this further vindication of Sami-Sabinsa’s tireless, long-standing efforts to protect its intellectual property. We hope that this victory serves as further reminder to our competitors that Sami-Sabinsa will enforce its rights to the fullest extent of the law.”
“The Sami-Sabinsa Group has spent a great deal of time and money conducting science-based research to develop its intellectual property portfolio and lines of signature dietary supplement ingredients,” said James H. Hulme, a Partner at Arent Fox LLP and Sami-Sabinsa’s outside counsel for IP matters. “Sami-Sabinsa has rightfully earned its reputation as a leading ingredients supplier worldwide as a result, which unfortunately has led others to copy Sami-Sabinsa’s exemplary products.”
