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Man sues Kimberly-Clark, claims copycat device

BOSTON
Tue Jul 7, 2009 3:09pm EDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Boston-area inventor sued Kimberly-Clark Corp on Tuesday, contending that the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers had violated his patent for a device to detect bad breath.

The man, Marv Freadman of Chelsea, Massachusetts, filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court, saying that the Dallas-based consumer-products maker is developing a "visual indicating device for bad breath."

The device, Freadman said in court papers, works by detecting carbon dioxide and other gases given off by the bacteria that cause bad breath. Freadman said that he had already patented a similar device.

The Dallas-based company has its own later patent on the device, according to court papers.

The suit asks the court to stop Kimberly-Clark from using the technology and also seeks unspecific monetary damages.

A spokesman for Kimberly-Clark was not immediately available for comment.

The case number is 09-1145 in U.S. District Court in Boston.

(Reporting by Scott Malone in Boston and Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing Bernard Orr)


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