Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. American Body Building Products, LLCVital Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. American Body Building Products, LLC

In May 2006, Fort Lauderdale, Florida based Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“VPX”) brought a lawsuit against American Body Building Products, LLC (“ABB”), based in Walterboro, South Carolina, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Optimum Nutrition, Inc, for trade dress infringement and unfair competition, alleging that it had proprietary rights in the bottle in which it marketed and sold its ready to drink sports nutritional beverage product and that ABB had violated those rights by marketing and selling its competing product in a similar bottle.

At a trial which concluded January 12, 2007 in United States District Court in Palm Beach County, the court ruled in favor of ABB and issued an order holding: that the trade dress claimed by VPX was not inherently distinctive, had not achieved any secondary meaning and was primarily functional. The court also held that there was no likelihood that consumers would be confused as to the source of the products.

Case No. 06-60633-CIV-Middlebrooks

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida