29 January 2021
Clearly Clean Products
Roll Over-Wrap® Brand Food Trays
I write this letter as general counsel for Clearly Clean Products, LLC in order to inform and update our clients regarding legal actions our company has taken to establish and enforce our rights in technology invented, developed, patented, and manufactured by our company.
In this letter, I describe legal actions and issues pertaining specifically to our ROLL OVER-WRAP® brand smooth-edged trays.
Our company invented and manufactures the world’s only patented smooth-edged overwrap food tray from rigid plastics. The innovativeness of our production methods and of the resulting ROLL-OVER WRAP® tray line has so far been recognized by the award of seven U.S. patents, as well as foreign patents in several countries and regions. We also have many applications filed for additional patents. The innovativeness of the Roll-Over Wrap® tray line was also recognized by the Institute of Packaging Professionals when Clearly Clean received the AmeriStar Award for Refrigerated Food.
Clearly Clean has seen explosive growth and is out to change an entire industry, moving it from foam to our eco-friendly, recyclable PET trays. We have sought to license our patents to other tray manufacturers; however, no rival manufacturer has yet taken advantage of our offers. Instead, some chose to copy our technology without licenses, in flagrant disregard of U.S. and foreign patent laws. It is against these lawbreakers that our company has initiated legal proceedings.
We have already scored a lightning-quick victory against a Chinese manufacturer and reached an amicable agreement with its former U.S. distributor, which is now one of our valued clients. Separately, we are suing a former business vendor and its associates which, we allege, misused information shared in confidence and now make and sell our patented trays without the license our patents legally require.
Even though patent and other legal rights can be enforced against anyone who improperly makes, sells, or even merely uses patented technologies such as our ROLL OVER-WRAP® trays, our company has not asserted our patents against retailers or processors that use our competitors’ infringing trays, and we hope never to have reason to do so; we hope to work through tray suppliers to license our technology. We believe that such arrangements minimize costs for both tray manufacturers and their customers and also avoid potential disruptions in tray supply.
We are cognizant that all costs which tray manufacturers incur add to the costs which processors and retailers must pay. When tray manufacturers contribute a royalty that fairly rewards innovators for the efforts they have expended and the cost-savings their innovations permit, legal costs are minimized. When, however, tray manufacturers flout U.S. and foreign laws and create the need to hire expensive legal services to adjudicate and enforce those laws, everyone’s costs rise tremendously. We hope that you will join with us in encouraging other manufacturers of our innovative rolled-edge trays to take the legal route and license our technologies to minimize potential supply chain disruptions and reduce our, their, and ultimately your costs.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.
Very truly yours,
Gary D. Colby
General Counsel
gcolby@clearlyclean.com