Gordonsville, VA, December 20, 2006 - PBM Products, LLC, the largest U.S. supplier of store-brand baby formulas, announced today that it is being sued by Mead Johnson & Co.
The lawsuit, filed in Indianapolis at the United States District Court, Southern Indiana District, alleges trade dress infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition related to the PBM-introduction of store-brand infant formula that is a less expensive alternative to the Mead Johnson brand, Enfamil® LIPIL®.
The lawsuit contends that Enfamil LIPIL has significantly lost ground to the store-brand formula because of the similarity of the packaging:
“Following the arrival of Defendants’ [PBM Products, LLC, and PBM Nutritionals, LLC] copycat product, in approximately mid-May 2006, Mead Johnson has suffered a measurable and significant downturn in sales and expects that trend to continue while Defendants’ confusingly similar product remains on the market, sold alongside ENFAMIL LIPIL.”
“This is not about consumer confusion,” said Paul B. Manning, CEO of PBM Products. “We believe consumers clearly understand that store-brand formulas provide high quality nutrition equivalent to national brand formulas. There is no better infant formula than store-brand infant formulas, and mothers are increasingly making informed choices when it comes to finding the right nutrition for their babies at a great value.”
It is no wonder that recent ACNielsen consumer insight information confirms dollar sales of store-brand formulas are up more than 30 percent.*
“I think it’s ironic that Mead Johnson is suing us over the front of the label, when the likely reason Enfamil LIPIL sales are down is because moms are reading the nutritional information on the back of the label,” added Manning. “Moms are aware that the FDA develops the guidelines for all infant formulas, so they are confident that they can choose their formula based on price.”
All infant formulas sold in the United States are nutritionally complete and meet the strict nutritional infant formula guidelines determined by the FDA. PBM Nutritionals manufactures powder infant formulas in the only ISO 9001:2000-certified infant formula-manufacturing facility in the United States. PBM’s factory in Georgia, Vermont, has been manufacturing state-of-the-art infant formulas for more than 20 years.