A joint effort by Virginia and Texas law firms secured an important jury verdict for Leading international toy and consumer products company, ZURU in December 2017. Counsels Thomas Dunlap and Cortland Putbrese, of Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC of Virginia and Eric Findlay of Texas law firm Findlay Craft, won a patent infringement action against a competitor over a water balloon toy brand that found ZURU was owed damages in the amount of $12.25 million.
The plaintiff claimed that the patent for ZURU’s Bunch O Balloons, which inflates several balloons simultaneously, was infringed upon by Telebrands and subsidiary Bulbhead.com’s Battle Balloon line. Counsel for the plaintiffs convinced a jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas of the willful infringement, which awarded lost profits and reasonable royalty damages in the amount of $12,250,000.
This was not the first action the Zuru has taken against the defendants. ZURU has obtained three previous preliminary injunctions against Telebrands to bar U.S. sales of their “Battle Balloons,” “Balloon Bonanza” and “Easy Einsteins” products. ZURU has two additional cases against Telebrands, one involving the “Balloon Bonanza” and “Easy Einsteins” products.
Anna Mowbray, ZURU’s Chief Operating Officer, commented: “ZURU works diligently to bring innovation to market and to stand by its inventors. We are committed to continuously fighting what we believe are knock-off companies like Telebrands who try to undercut inventors and claim innovations as their own. We are confident that the U.S. legal system will help us continue to send this message. Moreover, we are looking forward to an award of enhanced damages above and beyond the $12,250,000 based on findings of Telebrands’ willful misconduct.”
