Louisiana-based PacTec Inc., a maker of industrial containment bags used at both Energy Department and commercial nuclear cleanup sites, claims in a new federal lawsuit that another company is violating its patents.
PacTec claims Pennsylvania-based ICE Service Group and two Tennessee-based affiliates, ICE Packaging and Strategic Packaging, are “making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing containment bags embodying PacTec’s patented apparatuses and methods.”
The defendants have done so with “full knowledge” of PacTec’s patent rights, and the infractions have been “willful and deliberate,” the company said in its June 1 complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. PacTec has requested a jury trial and monetary damages and seeks to have ICE enjoined from further patent infractions.
PacTec said it discovered evidence of the alleged violations by the defendants between 2016 and 2018 at sites including DOE’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and Separations Process Research Unit in upstate New York, along with a Perma-Fix Environmental Services waste treatment site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
PacTec said the defendant has in various incidents infringed on its patents or induced others to do so. The complaint alleges the defendant is using some PacTec technology to make bags at a manufacturing facility in Tennessee. The suit said ICE has demonstrated bags with PacTec technology to prospective clients.
“Our client has not actually been served with the lawsuit,” Henry Sneath, a Pittsburgh attorney representing ICE Service Group, said by telephone Thursday. As a result, the lawyer said he has not been able to review the allegations in any great detail.
While he declined to comment on the litigation itself, Sneath said ICE Service Group is confident its products don’t infringe on anyone else’s patents.
The PacTec bags in question are formed of polymeric fibers. They are meant to fit large containers like roll-off dumpsters or dump trailers. They also have “closeable openings” or a “sling system for lifting the filed bag” with cranes or similar machinery. On its website, PacTec said its products help clients collect, package, and dispose of wastes including soil, gravel and debris from demolition. PacTec said its products also prevent leaks from sludge waste.
PacTec is filing the suit in order to enforce its patent rights, attorney John G. Jackson said in an emailed statement in which he reiterated key points of the complaint. “PacTec otherwise declines to provide any further comment on the ongoing litigation.”
The ICE website indicates it is involved in handling, loading, transporting, and logistics supports for hazardous waste and radioactive materials at nuclear power plants and Energy Department sites. The company also said it has containers that can transport waste material over highways, rail lines, and waterways. The company, which describes itself as a small business, serves the industrial, construction, and environmental sectors.
