Durham’s Spoonflower finds itself at the center of patent infringement allegations.
A pair of plaintiffs, Sharon Tedesco and Marc Tedesco, filed a federal suit against Spoonflower, which makes custom fabrics and wallpaper, and its parent company, Shutterfly, last month, claiming patent infringement.
The plaintiffs, based in California, claim they hold patents relating to a “procedure map” — the encoding of fabrics in ways that allow them to be accurately measured, marked and cuffed. The lawsuit claims Spoonflower, which prints on-demand fabrics, is doing something similar, in violation of those protections.
The Tedescos learned of the alleged infringement when Sharon Tedesco purchased samples of fabric from Spoonflower last year, finding that the samples included a “procedure map” like what they had patented, the lawsuit says. The Tedescos notified Spoonflower of the alleged infringement in May of 2022, but the company hasn’t stopped encoding its fabric.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys Susan Freya Olive and Brandon Leavitt on Nov. 28, asks for damages and a jury trial.
Shutterfly, an image sharing company, sent TBJ a statement Monday:
“While patent claims are common across all industries, we cannot comment on this particular fabric printing techniques claim as we have not been served on this matter. However, we take every allegation seriously. If we receive formal documentation, we'll conduct a thorough review and respond accordingly."
Federal litigation is rare for Spoonflower, which was founded by Gart Davis and Stephen Fraser in 2008. A sweep of the federal docket shows just one other lawsuit targeting the company in recent years, a disability lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania in 2020 that had a slew of defendants and was settled that same year.
Spoonflower, which was acquired in 2021 by Shutterfly, recently named a new vice president and general manager, George Goeth-Chi Chao. He took over for Michael Jones, who led the firm through its $225 million deal and left the company this year.
The size of Spoonflower's presence in Durham is unclear. Earlier this year, Shutterfly said it would close the Spoonflower manufacturing facility on Alston Avenue, which Spoonflower moved into in 2021.
The company lists office at 2810 Meridian Parkway in Durham.