When the coffee brewer drips, it pours.
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain is suing a unit of Treehouse Foods
Both sides are about to enter into legal fisticuffs -- and they each actually have a pretty sound defense.
Green Mountain has patents protecting its K-Cups that are good for at least a couple of more years, and the company is battling to have the protection of its intellectual property extended. If a coffee maker wants to sell their grounded beans in the fast-growing Keurig-ready cups, they have to either pay Green Mountain a few pennies per K-Cup or sell Green Mountain the coffee itself.
There is heft and value to these consumer innovations. Polaroid would have been in trouble if everyone was selling self-developing film. Console makers in the video game industry often subsidize the hardware, because no software developer can crank out an Xbox, PS3, or Wii game without paying the respective console maker.
On the other side of the ring, Treehouse is no renegade. It generates a decent living making private-label products of popular brand items for supermarkets and department stores. It wouldn't be stupid enough to enter this niche -- and Wal-Mart wouldn't be dumb enough to be stocking these products -- if it was an obvious case of trampling over Green Mountain's patents.
There's plenty at stake here. Peet's
Will Green Mountain be acquired before the investigation and patent lawsuit clears? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.