Jean-Paul Gaillard, who was chief executive of Nestle’s Nespresso unit from 1988 to 1997, is now suing Nestle for patent infringement. Gillard owns a business named Ethical Coffee Company, which makes coffee capsules for Nespresso machines. In a complaint filed on January 20, 2015, Gaillard claims that Nestle introduced a harpoon mechanism in 2010, which stopped rival capsules from working properly in Nespresso machines, allegedly constituting patent infringement. Ethical Coffee said it suffered at least $174 million in losses since this change.
Nestle denies any claims of patent infringement and plans to fight the case in court. Take a look at the patent in question here.
