New York, Apr. 22 - Two U.S. units of the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever filed suit in federal court Tuesday against several Canadian competitors charging they were infringing on its "famous SLIM-FAST" brand of weight-loss products.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan, accuses five Canadian companies and their top officers of marketing a similar sounding product line, SlimQuick, to U.S. consumers.
SLIM-FAST is the largest selling weight management product "with billions of dollars in sales in the United States since 1977," Unilever's U.S. affiliates, Unilever Supply Chain Inc and Conopco Inc, said in the trademark suit. Since 1977, Unilever has spent "well over $1 billion advertising and promoting the SLIM-FAST brand in the United States."
Among the celebrities featured in its advertisements have been comedian Whoopi Goldberg and former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda.
Unilever, which did not immediately return calls seeking comment, is asking the court to permanently bar the sale and distribution of SlimQuick products and destroy the stock already on stores' shelves.
The Canadian companies named in the suit, all headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, are: Global Health Technologies, Inc; Wellnx Life Sciences Inc; Wellnx Dr Inc; NX Care Inc and NX Labs. All the companies list Derek Woodgate, Brad Woodgate and Scott Welch as their officers or directors, the suit said.
There were no telephone listings for the companies or the men in Missisauga, which the suit described as their principal place of business. There were also no listings for them in Buffalo, N.Y., where they also have offices, according to the suit.