Nestlé Hit With $3 Million Verdict in Tidy Cat Patent Case

A jury in the Northern District of Illinois awarded $3 million to Oil-Dri Corp. in its lawsuit against Nestlé Purina Petcare Co. for infringing its cat litter patent.

The jury found March 26 that Nestlé’s clumping Tidy Cat litter infringed Oil-Dri’s patent covering a clumping animal litter that uses a combination of swelling and non-swelling clays.

The jury also found that cat litter products marketed by Nestlé’s predecessor didn’t invalidate Oil-Dri’s patent.

The court had previously granted Nestlé summary judgment on a separate infringement claim stemming from its use of a manufacturing process to combine clumping and anti-clumping aggregate into ...