AUTO WAX WINS ANOTHER CLAY PATENT 
INFRINGEMENT CASE

FEDERAL COURT ISSUES $1 MILLION JUDGMENT AGAINST JAPANESE IMPORTER OF DETAILING CLAY

 HOUSTON, TX 

Auto Wax announced today another victory in its efforts to enforce its clay patents. A federal court in Houston, Texas entered a final judgment on June 17, 2002 against a Japanese supplier of clay, Shinyo Chemical Co., Ltd., and its representative Yoshihisa Hori.  This default judgment awarded Auto Wax $758,585 for patent damages in the lawsuit, $300,000 for breach of contract, and $32,292 for costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees.  The total amount awarded to Auto Wax in the judgment is $1,090,877.  A copy of this judgment is attached to this press release.

Shinyo and Mr. Hori were suppliers of detailing clay to Mark V Products, Inc.  After years of litigation, including a two week trial, a federal court in Dallas separately found last September that Mark V was a willful infringer of Auto Wax’s patent rights, and ordered Mark V to pay over $3.6 million in damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, pre-judgment interest, etc. 

The recently entered Houston judgment ordered Shinyo and Mr. Hori to, among other things, stop importing and selling infringing clay in the U.S.  The judgment also stated that all of the claims in Auto Wax’s ‘993 and ‘416 clay patents “are valid and enforceable.” 

Auto Wax’s President, David Miller, stated: “We’ve now received four separate federal judgments in four separate federal courts upholding our clay patent rights and stopping the sale of infringing clay.  In one of these cases, our clay patent was challenged by a company that hired one of the biggest laws firms in the nation (Fulbright & Jaworski). That case was tried to a jury and the patent came through with flying colors.  So far, four federal judges, eight federal jurors, and three federal patent examiners in the Patent & Trademark Office have all upheld our patent rights.”  

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