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<\/em><\/p>\nThe complaint was filed in United States District Court of Delaware, case 1:20-CV-01567-UNA.<\/p>\n
In the suit, Loren Maggiore, the inventor of Bug-A-Salt, defines his invention as, \u201cA \u2018gun\u2019 that uses table salt as particulate projectiles to stun or kill insects, particularly flies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The patented Bug-A-Salt gun, which is safe around children and pets, has been on the market since 2013. More than three million Bug-A-Salt units have been sold; revenue from several versions of the product have resulted in sales in excess of $100 million.<\/p>\n
In December 2019, Skell management became aware that Dillard\u2019s was offering for sale a near-identical Chinese-manufactured product it called \u201cSalt War Gun.\u201d That same month, Skell sent a cease-and-desist letter to Dillard\u2019s, demanding they stop selling the counterfeit item. Dillard\u2019s responded they would do so, and later confirmed that the \u201cSalt War Gun\u201d had been removed from all of its stores. Subsequent investigation showed the patent-infringing product was still available at Dillard\u2019s in Florida and other Dillard\u2019s stores.<\/p>\n
According to an article in the Jan. 26 issue of Barron\u2019s magazine, Dillard\u2019s was the second-most shorted small-cap stock on the Russell 2000 index, behind GameStop.<\/p>\n
Little Rock, Arkansas-headquartered Dillard\u2019s has more than 300 locations in 29 US states.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first came up with this crazy idea more than 30 years ago, and never dreamt it would become the international success that it has,\u201d Maggiore says. \u201cWith Dillard\u2019s acknowledging our patent but not terminating its sales of its knock-off product, this is a case of the typical small entrepreneur fighting against the corporate giant refusing to do the right thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n