Stoett Industries Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Irvine Shade & Door

Stoett Industries of Hicksville, Ohio, a provider of custom retractable screen solutions, announced last week that it filed a lawsuit for patent infringement against Irvine Shade & Door of Elkhart, Ind. RV PRO reached out to Irvine Shade & Door, who worked with business law firm Barnes & Thornburg to make sure there was no infringement on the patent.

“We did the research before we designed the product to make sure we didn’t accidentally infringe on their product or on their licensed patent,” said Nick Donis, VP of Irvine Shade & Door. Irvine also has provided its research findings to Stoett on multiple occasions, according to a release issued by the company.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, asserts unauthorized making and selling of patented technology, and is intended, according to Stoett, to protect the company’s investment in providing retractable shower screens for the RV industry.

Stoett considers Irvine’s retractable shower screen product, the Slow-Roll Shower Screen, to infringe upon patent rights held by Stoett. In this regard, Stoett is seeking monetary damages, an injunction, and recall of infringing shower screens from the U.S. market, where the filed lawsuit is intended to prevent the defendant, Irvine, from selling any shower screens infringing upon Stoett’s intellectual property.

“It is unfortunate that other company’s contribution to innovation in the industry is to just have a product made overseas,” Chris Stover, general manager of Stoett, stated in a press release. “We are committed to protecting our rights and will take legal action against any parties that are unlawfully making and selling infringing products contrary to our intellectual property rights.”

Irvine Shade & Door contests that nearly the entire product is made in the U.S.

“We’re making it in Indiana. We designed everything here,” said Donis. “There may be one or two things inside of it that are sourced overseas, but the product is being manufactured here.”

He also noted that the statement from Stoett said “other company’s contribution” – a distinction worth pointing out, said Donis.

The Slow-Roll Shower Screen was shown at RVX in Utah last March. Despite the recent announcement of the suit, the product will go into production on June 1.

“There’s been a need in the market for a product like this,” said Donis, “but there were deficiencies in the existing product. It created an opportunity. And we developed … a better product. And we’re very happy to be able to fill that need in the marketplace.”