NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Aquavit") secured Compensatory sanctions against counterfeiters in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in a civil action against U-Bio Med, Inc., et al.
The judgment orders all profits earned or to be earned by Defendants U-Bio Med et. al. from sales that violate or violated the modified Preliminary Injunction ("MPI") secured in April of last year, in addition to 75% of Aquavit's legal fees and costs expended in connection with its contempt motion, inclusive of fees and expenses incurred during the current sanctions phase.
"Defendants engaged in numerous forms of prohibited conduct, including advertising AQUAGOLD through social media posts and websites that violated the MPI… Accordingly, Defendants' ill-gotten profits adequately correspond to Plaintiff's losses, which are both monetary and qualitative" the court stated.
The Court agreed with Plaintiff that the Second Circuit's decision in Manhattan Indus., Inc. v. Sweater Bee by Banff, Ltd. supports disgorgement in this case as a form of compensatory relief. See 885 F.2d 1, 5–6 (2d Cir. 1989) ("[T]he concept of compensatory relief includes profits derived by the contemnor from violation of a court order." (citations omitted)); see also King v. Allied Vision, Ltd., 65 F.3d 1051, 1062– 63 (2d Cir. 1995).
The court further ordered Defendants to remove the examples of non-Compliance. This order requires Defendants: to discontinue all misleading usage of images and videos including celebrity Kim Kardashian West video(s) and to remove any suggestion of Defendants' ownership of U.S. patents or other U.S.-based intellectual property rights as to AQUAGOLD from all of Defendants' websites and social media pages.
U-Bio Med has presented false statements and fake documents, and has failed to comply with prior court orders and the Honorable Valerie E. Caproni today further ordered that non-compliance with the court's decision will result in an order to show cause for coercive sanctions.
U-Bio Med was indicted for criminal activity for trademark infringement of AQUAGOLD in South Korea in 2019 and both the company and its CEO, Eum Nyun shik (a.k.a. Corea Eum), were fined this year.
"We are focused on protecting the safety of our customers and patients. The court's decision sends a strong message that a company cannot exercise blatant disregard of the law, especially when patients' safety and public health are at risk," said Sobin Chang, Aquavit's CEO, who has previously served at the FDA's DDMAC (Division of Drug Marketing Advertising and Communications) in her career. "Our company has completed three extensive FDA inspections in recent years and we stand by our product integrity in developing, manufacturing and commercializing medical devices. The counterfeiters' intentional and willful actions are inexcusable, disparaging and have caused immediate and irreparable injury not only to our company but also to public health and safety. In addition to the laws applied to the preliminary injunction order and sanctions, they have violated FDA's FD&C Act sections 501, 502 and 510 for misbranding medical devices. We will work closely with the FDA to identify and prosecute the counterfeiters, not only in copying our AQUAGOLD trademark, but also the ones using different brand names."
Plaintiff has submitted to the court the evidence of Defendants' own video claiming to have produced and sold over 500,000 units of the counterfeits and the compensatory sanction could be in the tens of millions of dollars.
About AQUAGOLD® fine touch™
AQUAGOLD® fine touch™ is a first of its kind, patented repeated motion microchannel microinjector delivering approximately 1,200 to 2,000 microinjections per minute to deliver bioactive compounds intradermally. The device is designed to painlessly and effectively deliver bioactive compounds into the skin, avoiding common complications associated with traditional techniques. AQUAGOLD® fine touch™ is manufactured and distributed by Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries.
About Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a high-tech pharmaceutical company that provides a comprehensive range of innovative pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device technologies. Aquavit Pharmaceuticals, Inc. focuses on personalized medicine to improve patients' health, maximize the efficiency of our medical community, and support the pharmacoeconomics of payers.
