Clorox, Brita Fail to Escape ZeroWater’s ‘Patent Ambush’ Case

A federal judge in Pennsylvania rejected a request by Clorox Co. and its Brita unit to dismiss or transfer an antitrust case over certain water filters in a dispute brought by the company behind a rival, ZeroWater.

Zero Technologies LLC, owned by Rosemont, Ill.-based Culligan International Co., accused Brita of engaging in a “patent ambush” scheme to monopolize the market for high-performance gravity-fed water filters, used in home pitchers to remove lead and other harmful contaminants from drinking water. The high-performance filters are certified by a standard-setting organization.

Brita argued it’s simply enforcing its legitimate intellectual property rights, and that ...