A court date has now been set in the lawsuit filed by multilevel marketing giant Mannatech, a publicly traded company with annual sales pushing $700 million, against Techmedica Health, a privately held nutraceutical firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The court date has been set for March 17, 2008; the Honorable Jorge Solis will preside. The suit, filed May 6, 2006, followed an overwhelming response to Techmedica’s products at the 2006 Natural Products Expo West trade show in Anaheim, California.
“Mannatech has a history of attacking other small nutraceutical companies; this lawsuit was very much anticipated,” said Dr. Michael Halliday, CEO, of Techmedica Health. “Our legal team was consulted before marketing Nutratose.com(TM) and concluded that Mannatech is trying to claim patent rights on what is actually unpatentable: naturally occurring ingredients. Furthermore, the glyconutritional technology Mannatech continues to use in their formulations is now considered old technology. New advances in nutritional science have allowed us to surpass the 94% purity mark in the Nutratose.com(TM) formula. We see the continuance of this suit as a typical attempt by Mannatech to distract the public eye from their much-publicized recent troubles with the Texas Attorney General.
On February 28, 2008 these men were all arrested by the Federal Government for Fraud –
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/16085487.html
Our local news story from WOOD TV –
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=7946461
Their Techmedica (parent co.) website has been shut down by the DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. FDA -PDF document –
http://www.fda.gov/Cder/warn/cyber/2005/CL178e.pdf
West Michigan Better Business Bureau (BBB) as of March 5, 2008 Shows Unsatisfactory Rating –
http://westernmichigan.bbb.org/WWWRoot/Report.aspx?site=53&bbb=0372&firm=24006027