On March 13, 2019, ThermoLife International, LLC filed suit in Arizona Federal District Court against Sparta Nutrition, LLC.
PHOENIX, March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 13, 2019, ThermoLife International, LLC filed suit in Arizona Federal District Court against Sparta Nutrition, LLC. ThermoLife is a leading technology supplier in the sports nutrition and supplement industry. ThermoLife holds 17 patents with more than 450 claims related to novel uses of amino acid nitrate compounds, compositions, and uses in Dietary Supplements and food products.
ThermoLife’s Complaint brings claims against Sparta Nutrition for false advertising, false patent marking, and unfair competition. As the complaint alleges, Sparta Nutrition has willfully and intentionally misled consumers into purchasing Sparta Nutrition’s falsely advertised, misbranded, and adulterated products. According to ThermoLife’s Complaint, Sparta Nutrition’s profits are ill-gotten gains and must be disgorged. As the Complaint asserts, Sparta Nutrition’s willful false advertising has afforded it a competitive advantage in the dietary supplement marketplace for years, causing irreparable harm to its competitors, like ThermoLife, and companies that source or would source Dietary Supplement ingredients from ThermoLife.
As alleged in ThermoLife’s Complaint, Sparta Nutrition got its start in the Dietary Supplement industry by selling illegal steroidal drugs under the guise of “prohormone” supplements. Then, as ThermoLife alleges, Sparta Nutrition used the ill-gotten gains obtained by selling illegal steroidal drugs labeled as Dietary Supplements, to develop several more products, that once again had drugs in them, and that were once again falsely labeled as Dietary Supplements. These newly developed drug-laced products included Kraken and Hydra Shred. As ThermoLife’s Complaint explains, Sparta’s drug-laced Kraken and Hydra Shed products unfairly and illegally competed directly against ThermoLife, and products that contained ThermoLife’s patented ingredients, and patented technology.
As explained in ThermoLife’s Complaint, with Kraken and Hydra Shred, Sparta Nutrition once again illegally sold drug-laced products falsely labeled as Dietary Supplements. This time, the drug was a synthetic amphetamine-like stimulant that was laced into the Kraken and Hydra Shred products: DMHA.
As highlighted in ThermoLife’s Complaint, Sparta Nutrition’s advertising described DMHA as “a revolutionary stimulant engineered to boost energy, focus, while suppressing appetite.” However, contrary to Sparta Nutrition’s advertising, describing DMHA as a “revolutionary stimulant,” the FDA approved DMHA as a prescription drug in 1946.
As ThermoLife’s Complaint explains, the approval of DMHA as a “drug” prohibits DMHA from being a compliant ingredient in a Dietary Supplement, and, as further explained in ThermoLife’s complaint, the inclusion of a “drug” (like DMHA) in a Dietary Supplement, renders the product that contains such an ingredient misbranded, adulterated, and prohibited for sale in interstate commerce.
As further alleged by ThermoLife, Sparta Nutrition sold massive amounts of the drug-laced Kraken and Hydra Shred products, but in an effort to stay ahead of FDA enforcement efforts, Sparta Nutrition recently changed the ingredients in the drug-laced Kraken and Hydra Shred products (though the drug-laced versions remain widely available for sale on the internet). While the reformulated versions of Kraken do not contain drugs, they do contain at least one unproven, falsely marked (as patented, and patent pending), and falsely advertised ingredient: VASO6. Despite the unproven effects regarding Sparta Nutrition’s advertised benefits of VASO6, Sparta Nutrition markets its new versions of Kraken as containing patented “clinically-proven ingredient[s]” at “CLINICALLY-STUDIED DOSES FOR A MAXIMUM STRENGTH PRE-WORKOUT EXPERIENCE!”. As ThermoLife alleges, contrary to these blatantly false claims, VASO6 is not “patented”, not “clinically-proven”, and not “clinically studied” for its advertised effects, and the dosage of VASO6 in the new non-drug Kraken products is not proven to provide any benefit it is marketed for.
When reached for comment, ThermoLife’s founder, Ron Kramer, offered the following statement: “It’s a tragedy what some people will do to try and compete with us and with our customers who license our ingredients. We look forward to proving all of these accusations in court and hope it will deter others from similar activity.”
ThermoLife’s Complaint seeks an injunction, barring further false advertising by Sparta Nutrition and actual damages. Furthermore, as a result of Sparta Nutrition’s willfully false advertising, ThermoLife also seeks an order from the court disgorging Sparta Nutrition’s profits and an award of treble damages.
ThermoLife is represented in the matter by Gregory B. Collins of Kercsmar & Feltus PLLC.
About ThermoLife International
Founded in 1998, ThermoLife is a world leader in patented ingredients and technology for use in dietary supplements, specializing in sports nutrition. ThermoLife controls a global patent portfolio of 27 patents spanning more than 15 countries including more than 450 valid and issued claims on the use of nitrates in dietary supplements. ThermoLife collaborates with leading manufacturers in the sports nutrition and dietary supplement industry to provide innovative ingredients to help offer superior patent-protected products to end users.
For more information, see www.ThermoLIfe.com, www.NO3-T.com, and www.MaxNox.info
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