P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club

I find the claims that P&G makes to be interesting, because unless something has changed, Dollar Shave Club does not actually produce or manufacture under license any of its own products, rather the service is about the delivery and cost mechanism, not the actual product received. Instead, they use products made by Dorco, a South Korean company, http://www.dorcousa.com/.

The 4X, for instance is the same as the Dorco Pace 4 blade system, including compatibility between the cartridges/handles. I think Dollar Shave Club may provide unique handles, but the razor blade cartridges themselves are made by Dorco.

Re: P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club

#7

Post by reitanqild » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 6:13 PM UTC

Tangentially related: I moved to old fashioned razor blades a few months ago and have actually hurt myself less since then.

Bonus: It cost like a fraction of the price and you don't look like a teenager when shaving :-P

Re: P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club

#8

Post by Someone1234 » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 6:14 PM UTC

It is extremely telling that Gillette is suing Dollar Shave Club, a direct competitor, rather than Dorco the actual manufacturer of the blades themselves.

DSC is actually just a blade reseller, so suing them for patent infringement seems odd. Until you consider that this whole lawsuit may be part of a larger drive to either push DSC out of business or buy them out of business, in either case the cost of the lawsuit will contribute.

PS - As an aside I don't think Dorco's blades are as good as Gillette's blades yet. However I highly welcome a more competitive landscape in the cartridge blade market.

Re: P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club

#9

Post by burnte » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 6:15 PM UTC

sauere wrote: post #3

Classic "butthurt giant is mad at new competition and sues them to death" move. Subscribing to DSC today, wanted to do that a long time ago anyway.

I used DSC and regretted it, the razors are quite weak. I tried Harry's and was quite happy in the end. Much higher quality.

Re: P&G’s Gillette Sues Dollar Shave Club

#10

Post by cfcef » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 6:16 PM UTC

tristor wrote: post #6

I find the claims that P&G makes to be interesting, because unless something has changed, Dollar Shave Club does not actually produce or manufacture under license any of its own products, rather the service is about the delivery and cost mechanism, not the actual product received. Instead, they use products made by Dorco, a South Korean company, http://www.dorcousa.com/ . The 4X, for instance is the same as the Dorco…

> rather the service is about the delivery and cost mechanism, not the actual product received.

Presumably they are purchasing the razor blades from Dorco and importing them.

http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-litig...

> Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention, or importing into the United States a product covered by a claim of a patent without the permission of the patent owner. Further, you may be considered to infringe a patent if you import items into the United States that are made by a patented method, unless the item is materially changed by subsequent processes or becomes a trivial and nonessential component of another product. A person “infringes” a patent by practicing each element of a patent claim with respect to one of these acts. Further, actively encouraging others to infringe patents, or supplying or importing components of a patented invention, and related acts can also give rise to liability in certain cases.

(If you think about it, of course importing is infringement. Otherwise, patents are worthless: anything patented would simply be made overseas, if they aren't already.)