Vitamix Corp. officials knew what they were doing when they "knowingly and irreparably harmed" Orem-based Blendtec, a manufacturer of blenders, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell has ruled.
Her decision, issued late last month, awarded nearly $24 million to Blendtec and its parent, K-Tec Inc. Campbell ordered that $11 million in enhanced damages and $1.9 million in pre-judgment interest and costs be joined with another $11 million that a jury awarded last June.
The announcement came from Holland & Hart, a Salt Lake City law firm that represented K-Tec. A Vitamix statement issued Tuesday said the firm would appeal Campbell's ruling and the jury's decision.
K-Tec's lawyers had argued that Cleveland-based Vitamix engaged in "deliberate copying" of Blendtec's patented blending container. Campbell said Vitamix "knew ofK-Tec's patents and did not act in good faith."
Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson, who invented the container that Vitamix was accused of copying, said in a statement that he appreciated "the opportunity to take our case before a jury and judge to plead for protection from a large company that stole our revolutionary design. ⦠The system works."
Tony Ciepiel, Vitamix vice president of sales and marketing, said in a statement Tuesday that "we have been in litigation with Blendtech for several years relating to the XP container, which represented only a small part of our commercial business, was old technology and was eliminated from our product line last July. The litigation did not in any way relate to motor bases or our household products."
