A jury in Texas sided with the Defendant, Medallion Foods, Inc., stating that it’s “Bowlz” bowl-shaped tortilla chips did not infringe the intellectual property owned by the snack giant, Frito-Lay.

Frito-Lay filed a lawsuit against Medallion Foods, Inc. in February 2012, alleging that the Defendant’s Bowlz tortilla snack chips were too similar to Frito-Lay’s Tostitos Scoops! chips. Both of the chips are formed into a small bowl-shaped configuration to allow for easier scooping.

In addition to various trademark registrations, Frito-Lay owns a number of patents for the process of forming a tortilla chip into a bowl-shape configuration (U.S. Patent Nos. 6,610,344, 6,592,923, 6,638,553), as well as a U.S. design patent for the mold (U.S. Patent No. D459,853). In the end, the jury concluded that Medallion’s methods of making the Bowlz tortilla chips were sufficiently different than the methods described in Frito-Lay’s patents, and therefore Frito-Lay failed to prove that the Defendant infringed any of its intellectual property.

The original Complaint can be found here.