Matthew Barbee, head of recipe development for Perfect Co., prepares to make chocolate chip cookies using Perfect Co.’s technology. That technology is the basis of a patent infringement lawsuit that Perfect Co. filed against a competitor this week. Amanda Cowan/The Columbian files
Perfect Co., a maker of smart kitchen products, is suing a competitor for patent infringement of its measuring technology.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court’s Western District of Washington, the Vancouver company alleges that Adaptics Limited has been making and marketing a digital scale and smartphone app called Drop.
According to Perfect Co., Drop violates its patent for a system where a digital scales communicates with computing devices, such as a smartphone. The technology is used to precisely measure ingredients and track recipes.
Perfect Co. is seeking damages and a halt to Drop’s production. CEO Michael Wallace said his company had a “responsibility to its investors and customers” to file the suit.
“They launched into the market a year after we were already in the market,” he said in a phone interview. “From our point of view, it was clear they were copying what we were doing.”
Adaptics Limited, based in Dublin, Ireland, has offices in San Francisco. The company said in an email that the lawsuit is “completely devoid of merit.”
“The patents are not valid because they don’t invent anything that wasn’t already well known and we don’t infringe on the patents as they are defined — so we look forward to our day in court,” the company said.
It wouldn’t be the first time the two companies have met in court. Perfect Co., then called Pure Imagination, sued Adaptics in 2014, alleging infringement on an older, similar patent. That case is ongoing. On Tuesday, a judge denied Adaptics’ motion to dismiss the case.
Perfect Co. is based in downtown Vancouver in the two-story Centurion Building, where it employs about 24 people. Wallace has said that the company is hoping to double its workforce in 2018.
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