BOISE -- One of Idaho's fastest growing companies has been dealt a blow in United States district court.
Meridian-based Scentsy lost its latest copyright infringement lawsuit on Tuesday.
According to attorneys representing Harmony Brands LLC, Scentsy had sued the Utah-based scented wax company, alleging the company's products too closely resembled corresponding Scentsy products.
Harmony brands sells melted wax products similar to Scenty's products in retail stores, including Albertsons and Walgreens.
However, U.S. District Court Chief Justice Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that there wasn't enough evidence for copyright infringement in the case. Furthermore, Winmill's opinion suggests that although 14 of the company's products in question were similar in size, color, and even featured similar artwork, they weren't similar enough to Scentsy's products to constitute copyright infringement.
In his judgment, Winmill wrote:
Although Scentsy has presented the Court with evidence that Harmony reviewed Scentsy s warmers as it designed its own warmers, and it seems clear that Scentsy warmers were the starting point for some of Harmony s warmers, Scentsy has not presented evidence that the Harmony warmers are virtual duplications of Scentsy s warmers. In fact, a simple view of Scentsy s copyrighted warmers and Harmony s warmers which Scentsy asserts infringe on them reveals similarities but no duplication.
We are very pleased with the outcome, said Boise attorney John Zarian, who represented Harmony Brands in the litigation. It took courage for our client to vigorously defend these claims against a huge adversary.
I would expect that Scentsy and other parties would take this ruling into account when considering future lawsuits, Zarian said.
Chief Legal Counsel for Scentsy, Inc. said in a statement sent to KTVB, We received the decision on Tuesday and are considering our next steps.
The copyright lawsuit isn't the first Scentsy has filed.
Back in January, the company sued an Iowa-based clothing and accessory company for using Scentsy trademarks on logos and clothing labels.
