Philips sued several defendants in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah for infringing Philips’ intellectual property rights and deceiving consumers in the defendants’ sales of brush heads. With its rulings in favor of Philips, the Court upheld Philips’ rights, protecting consumers against deceptive and infringing trade practices by third parties.

The Court’s rulings prohibit defendants’ further infringement of trademarks, design rights and trade dress such as those found in Sonicare brush heads, Sonicare for Kids, ProResults, SimplyClean, and DiamondClean brush heads.

“Philips respects the intellectual property of others as a matter of business principles and ethical behavior, and when an entity falls short in respecting our intellectual property we will take forceful action to safeguard our assets and to protect consumers,” said Michael-John Kuhne, Business Leader Oral Healthcare at Philips. “As a global leader in oral healthcare, Philips invests significantly in new innovations to help people achieve their oral care goals. Our global R&D programs and resulting strong Intellectual Property in this area provide the foundation to help us deliver on our goal to improve people’s health.”

Philips has a market leading oral healthcare portfolio which includes power toothbrushes, interdental cleaning devices, whitening devices and brush heads, complemented by services, connected applications and personalized coaching and guidance from smart sensor technology to proactively manage and improve people’s oral health.