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Article: How a 3-inch piece of plastic sparked a new legal dustup between Dyson and Hoover; Vacuum cleaner giants on brink of another multimillion pound court battle.
- Article from:
- The Mail on Sunday (London, England)
- Article date:
- December 30, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Solo Syndication Limited. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: LISA BUCKINGHAM;SARAH BRIDGE
JAMES Dyson walked from the High Court and proclaimed victory.
It was October 2000 and the inventor had vanquished the mighty Hoover. The court ruled that Hoover had infringed the patent for the Dual Cyclone vacuum cleaner on which Dyson had built his fortune - now reckoned to be about [pound]600 million.
That appeared to be that. Plucky Brit Dyson had outdone the US-owned company whose name had been synonymous with vacuum cleaners for generations. The headline writers had a field day. It was a clean sweep.
Dyson had taken his rival to the cleaners.
But now, seven years after Dyson first ...