Since I believe we've mentioned Colgate before in a blog or two I thought this would be interesting to mention. I came across an article a few days ago that reports that Colgate is being sued by Church & Dwight Inc. for patent infringement on packaging. Church & Dwight Inc. is claiming that Colgate-Palmolive used a specific type of packaging for their electric toothbrushes that Church & Dwight own the patent for. This packaging lets the buyer test the toothbrush in the store for a couple of seconds and then switches off as to not waste battery. The case will likely go to a jury trial but neither side had any comments at the time of this article. Colgate-Palmolive is a well known and trusted company so I was just wondering how this trial might affect them and their customers. Will they lose customers and trust? Or, will there products gain more attention from the publicity and thereby raise sales? It will be interesting to see which happens. I think that if Colgate knew about the patent infringement and went ahead with their product anyway, it says to me that they need to improve their CSR. If they somehow didn't know about the patent, well then they just need to be more aware, for themselves and their customers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704615504576172360509745644.html?mod=WSJ_Consumerproducts_leftHeadlines
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