A Utah inventor has filed suit claiming Frito-Lay stole his idea for a soda-pop can that can dispense other food.
Mark Kirkland of Sandy filed the suit in U.S. District Court alleging PepsiCo's largest division has violated patents he received Dec. 28 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.Frito-Lay, headquartered in Plano, Texas, last year sold more than $11 billion of snack foods such as Lay's potato chips, Doritos tortilla chips and Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks.
Developing a can capable of dispensing food provides a way for a variety of snacks to be sold in machines originally manufactured to sell only beverages.
Kirkland alleges that after he filed for patent protection for this new method of vending snack foods in 1993, he approached Frito-Lay with his idea in hopes of forming a joint venture.
"While his patent applications were pending, Frito-Lay had been (independently) test marketing this exact idea," said Julie Morriss, Kirkland's attorney.
She said the lawsuit was filed in Utah, because Kirkland lives in the state. In addition, Frito-Lay has a manufacturing plant in Kearns.