3M Fights Others Price-Gouging Their Masks During COVID-19

3M accused a second company in a California federal lawsuit Friday, April 10, of infringing its 3M-branded N95 masks by reselling the protective equipment at drastically increased prices, another battle in the company’s trademark fight directly stemming from the deadly coronavirus pandemic, reported Law360.

3M claims Utah-based Rx2Live tried to sell millions of the masks to Community Medical Centers in Fresno, California, at a “grossly inflated” price that was about four to five times greater than the list price, according to the complaint.

The company doesn’t claim Rx2Live was trying to sell counterfeit versions of 3M’s masks, but was instead falsely asserting that it was a distributor of 3M products, making CMC believe the mask prices were authorized by 3M, according to the lawsuit.

“Not only does such price-gouging further strain the limited resources available to combat COVID-19, but such conduct justifiably has caused public outrage which threatens imminent and irreparable harm to 3M’s brand as [Rx2Live] and similar pandemic profiteers promote an improper association between 3M’s marks and exploitative pricing behavior,” 3M said.

3M claims that the illegal price-gouging, combined with the unauthorized use of its name, violated federal and California trademark law.

Full Content: Law 360

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