The Federal Court in New Jersey has denied Creative Compounds' motion to alter or amend the judgment against it and denied it a new trial in the ongoing battle arising from that company's trademark infringement of Sabinsa Corporation's ForsLean® trademark. Last year, the US District Court of New Jersey awarded Sabinsa damages because of Creative Compound's infringement of the ForsLean® trademark. Creative Compounds was ordered to pay its infringing sales profit of $139,388.40 to Sabinsa.
This ongoing battle is likely to be considered a landmark example of the tenacity with which Sabinsa defends the company's intellectual property. On January 10, 2011, the US Supreme Court denied Creative Compounds' request to review the July 2010 decision of the Third Circuit Court in Sabinsa's favor. The Third Circuit ruled that Creative Compounds infringed Sabinsa’s ForsLean® trademark because Creative Compounds created a likelihood of confusion between ForsLean® and Creative Compounds' Forsthin, both of which refer to Coleus forskohlii extract.
Sabinsa's legal representative in this case, James H. Hulme, Esquire of Arent Fox LLP in Washington, DC, said "We hope that Creative Compounds now realizes that it cannot profit from its wrongful, infringing conduct. Although Creative Compounds has thirty days to appeal this decision, we stand ready to begin collection proceedings on the judgment within two weeks."
"If anyone, anywhere in the world has any doubt how seriously we take our intellectual property, this should answer them," said Sabinsa founder Dr. Muhammed Majeed. "It is't just our investment we are protecting, but that of our customers as well, and we will never falter in that commitment."