A King Sized Battle Between Mattress Manufacturers

On March 17, 2010, Mebane, North Carolina based Kingsdown, Inc. filed suit against King Koil Licensing Company, Inc. accusing King Koil of patent infringement, federal trademark infringement and unfair competition, and common law trademark and unfair competition. All claims relate to Kingsdown's "BEDMATCH" bedding diagnostic system.

The dispute arose after two Kingsdown employees left to join King Koil.  Kingsdown accuses King Koil of using the competitive knowledge of the two employees to create a bedding diagnostic system that infringes Kingsdown's patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,585,328 ("the '328 patent"), and using a name for the King Koil system that infringes Kingsdown's "BODY" and "MATCH" family of marks.  The '328 patent is directed to a "Customized Mattress Evaluation System" that allows a retail mattress store to collect data from a sensor pad positioned on top of a support surface to generate a pressure profile for a customer.  Figure 1 from the '328 patent graphically depicts the system:

Figure 2 shows a sample report:

Kingsdown's trademark claims are based on King Koil's attempts to register BODYMATCH, SLEEPMATCH, DATAMATCH, and even BEDMATCH, Kingsdown's mark.

The case is Civil Action No. 1:11-cv-220 (M.D.N.C.).