Kaneka Files Suit Against Pacific Rainbow

LOS ANGELES—Kaneka Corp., Osaka, Japan, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Western Division, against Xiamen, China-based Xiamen Kingdomway Vitamin Inc. and City of Industry, Calif.-based Pacific Rainbow International, alleging patent infringement of Kankea’s U.S. patent (No. 7,145,044) related to the production of reduced coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), also known as ubiquinol. Kaneka’s U.S. subsidiary, Pasadena, Texas-based Kaneka Nutrients L.P., supplies reduced CoQ10 as Kankea QH™.

Kaneka's lawsuit alleges the two companies are directly infringing and/or actively inducing infringement of the Kaneka patent through sale of ubiquinol. Kaneka is requesting a preliminary and permanent injunction from infringement, as well as regular and treble damages due to “the willful and deliberate nature” of the infringement.

In response to INSIDER’s request for comment, Pacific Rainbow issued a statement: “Kingdomway has filed its own patent application on the reduced CoQ10 in China in early 2009. In addition, Kingdomway is using an entirely different processing method to produce the reduced CoQ10. Accordingly, there has never been and will not be any infringement of the Kaneka patent. There is also no grounds for or merit to the patent infringement suit ... [and we] intend to vigorously defend all claims brought in this litigation, and are confident we will prevail.”