Did you hear?…Inventor charges Icon/Target with patent infringement of weights

Fitness equipment inventor and attorney Mark Krull has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, Minnesota, charging Icon Health & Fitness with patent infringement of his patented variable weight dumbbell system that Nautilus uses for its SelectTech Dumbbells. Co-defendant in the case is retailer Target Corp.

Target sells the Icon weight system called Reebok Speed Pac Dumbbells. They were featured in the national Sunday ad insert on May 21 with a sale price of $57.

In the complaint filed in early May, Krull noted that he had in June 2004 sent Target a copy of his patent and a notice of infringement since the retailer at that time was selling the Stamina Versa-Bell selectorized weight system. The company that sold the Stamina weights to Target is now in a license agreement with Krull, the complaint stated.

Krull told SNEWS® that he just started talking to Icon, which has its weight system made by the same factory in China that makes the Stamina system now under license. (See the 25-pound Stamina product by clicking here.)

“It’s in the most preliminary stage,” Krull said about the complaint, “and everybody’s going to try to find a way to make it work out.”

As of May 24, Icon had not issued a response to the court and there have been no hearings or other action.