CINCINNATI and TEMPLE, Texas, Feb. 14, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The Procter & Gamble Company and McLane Company, Inc. today jointly announced they have reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed by P&G on Dec. 21, 2005 that alleges trade dress infringement on four of P&G’s brands and unfair competition by McLane. McLane and its subsidiaries denied those contentions, but have agreed to a Consent Order submitted to the Court and will immediately redesign the packaging of their products. The remaining terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“Our objective was to put an end to what we view as infringement of our package designs,” said Jim Johnson, P&G’s chief legal officer. Johnson added, “We simply must protect our brand designs. This settlement addresses our infringement concerns and we are gratified McLane will now compete in the marketplace with different package designs.”
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement that enables both companies to move forward without the shadow of protracted litigation,” said Bill Fendrick, Vice President of Merchandising for McLane’s Grocery Distribution division. “As one of America’s largest distributors of consumer goods, we value our longstanding relationship with P&G, America’s largest consumer goods company and one of our largest suppliers. We believe this settlement is in the best interests of both companies and look forward to continuing the positive and productive relationship that puts dozens of P&G product lines into convenience stores and other retailers nationwide.”
About Procter & Gamble
Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Pringles(R), Folgers(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Actonel(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella, Gillette(R), and Braun. The P&G community consists of almost 140,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.
About McLane Company, Inc.
McLane Company, Inc. provides distribution services throughout the United States, delivering food and non-food products to more than 50,000 customer locations, including the convenience store, drug store, mass merchandise, quick service restaurants and movie theater industries. Headquartered in Temple, Texas, the company operates 19 grocery distribution divisions and 18 foodservice distribution centers as well as an industry specific software company. McLane, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. , employs some 14,000 people nationwide.
The Procter & Gamble Company
CONTACT: Doug Shelton of P&G, +1-513-983-7893, or shelton.do@pg.com ; orRachel Hughes of McLane Company, +1-254-771-7954, orrachel.hughes@mclaneco.com
Web site: http://www.pg.com/
