Published on 8 - May - 2008

PMS settles out of court over tumble dryer balls

After a year of wrangling Green Lane Products has reached an amicable out-of-court settlement which will see housewares supplier PMS International and retailer Poundland withdraw their spiky tumble dryer balls from sale.


Green Lane Products, the company behind the Aerolatte milk frother and Diablo stove-top toasted snack maker, designed its own technically-advanced Dryerballs product, which it registered in Europe in 2004. The product reduces drying time and softens clothes without the use of chemicals, and as such is a low-cost, eco-friendly and energy-saving solution. It has sold in huge numbers throughout Europe.

"We're glad to have put this case behind us," said Green Lane's Gary Lane. "This enables us to continue our exclusive domination of this marketplace in Europe. We've illustrated to our distributors, retailers and consumers that we stand firmly behind our innovative products. We'll have no hesitation in mounting equally ferocious litigation against any distributors that do not totally respect our European Design Registration Rights".

A spokesman for PMS commented that "it was a very difficult area of the law for all the parties in this action to navigate. It's undoubted that the Green Lane Dryerballs are a quality product that has considerable legal protection under UK and European IPR Law, and settling the proceedings was an appropriate commercial solution for all parties in order to curtail the mounting and hugely expensive legal costs.

"Green Lane displayed a passion and aggression to protect their Dryerballs product. The legal proceedings have been discontinued, the case is settled and PMS and Poundland will not carry this product in the future."

Green Lane Products is a small private company that designs, develops and markets innovative products. PMS International supplies an extensive range of consumer goods, and has Ethos Housewares as a subsidiary.





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