NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading international toy and consumer products company, ZURU™, has filed a new lawsuit against Telebrands, one of the largest U.S. telemarketing companies, with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to protect the Company’s award-winning Bunch O Balloons product from patent infringement.
The complaint requests the Court to issue an order restraining Telebrands from continued sales of “Easy Einstein Balloons,” a copy of the acclaimed Bunch O Balloons product invented and brought to market by Josh Malone and ZURU in 2014. The litigation is based on the copy product infringing on at least four of the U.S. patents (Patent Nos. 9,242,749, 9,315,282, 9,527,612, and 9,533,779) that protect the Bunch O Balloons product. The U.S. retailer Bed Bath and Beyond, who had begun stocking the Easy Einstein product, has also been included in the suit.
ZURU has seen international success since the launch of the original Bunch O Balloons product, shipping more than 2.3 Billion individual balloons last year worldwide and winning the 2017 Outdoor Toy of the Year in the U.S., the 2016 Australian Toy of The Year and the 2016 Nuremburg Toy Award. The lawsuit against Telebrands states that the Company has been attempting to market competing products to benefit from the success of Bunch O Balloons. ZURU has obtained two previous preliminary injunctions against Telebrands to bar U.S. sales of their “Battle Balloons” and “Balloon Bonanza” products.
In addition to infringing on the Bunch O Balloons patent, laboratory testing on samples of the Easy Einsteins product purchased from retail stores in Texas and Virginia showed the presence of toxic chemicals in concentrations significantly exceeding the U.S. legal limits for such chemicals in children’s toys. Following an emergency hearing on whether Telebrands should be immediately restrained from product sales, the United States District Judge’s Order stated it had been presented to the Court “that Telebrands has ceased all shipments of Easy Einstein Balloons and has contacted all of its retailers with instructions to take the product off the shelf.”
Anna Mowbray, ZURU’s Chief Operating Officer, asserts, “ZURU works diligently to monitor the quality of and bring innovation to market in all of its products. We are committed to vigorously fighting knock-off companies who try to undercut inventors and bring lesser quality goods, which are clearly in breach of IP, to consumers. I am confident we will prevail with the U.S. legal system in this dispute.”
About ZURU Toys
ZURU is a disruptive and award-winning company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative toys and consumer products. Inspired by kids and imaginative play, ZURU is one of the fastest growing toy companies in the U.S. and is known for their agility, creativity and new-age manufacturing techniques. The company has flourished from it small beginnings in Cambridge, New Zealand and now employs more than 400 staff, has 10 offices worldwide, owns multiple factories and supplies most major retailers in 121 countries. ZURU has delighted millions of families all over the world through partnerships with entertainment properties such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Universal Studios and DreamWorks as well as successfully building their own global brands including Bunch O Balloons™, X-Shot™, Robo Alive™, Micro Boats™ and Hamsters in a House™. ZURU strives to create a standard of excellence in its product engineering, marketing and distribution practices and seeks to reimagine play, every day. www.ZURU.com
