LAKEVILLE, Mass., Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. today provided an update on its patent infringement lawsuit against Decas Cranberry Products, Inc.

Rich Stamm, Vice President and General Counsel, issued the following statement:

"While Decas issued a press release today touting the fact that on December 1, 2009 the Court denied Ocean Spray's preliminary motion to dismiss Decas' counterclaim on our patent infringement lawsuit, Decas failed to mention that during a November 18, 2009 hearing the Court instructed Decas to allow Ocean Spray to inspect its manufacturing process.

Ocean Spray has been asking Decas for nearly 18 months to allow us to inspect Decas' process under a third-party confidential basis in efforts to avoid litigation but to alleviate our suspicion that Decas was violating our patent. Decas continually refused, leaving Ocean Spray no option other than to formally serve the complaint to initiate a court mandated 'discovery' process.

At the November 18 hearing, the Court provided Ocean Spray exactly what we had been seeking from Decas outside the litigation process -- access to Decas' manufacturing facility to determine whether and to what extent there is infringement. The Court required that Decas make its plant available for inspection promptly, that the parties immediately confer on protocols for such inspections and that they report to the Court by December 11, 2009 on the status of that effort.

We intentionally did not publicize the outcome of this hearing as our goal is to focus on the central legal question at issue: Does Decas' process infringe on Ocean Spray's patent? In our view, as evidenced by Decas' recent press release, their counterclaim defense strategy is clearly an effort to deflect attention away from the actual patent issue.

The Court's December 1 ruling does not relate to or in any way substantiate the merits of Decas' counterclaims."

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is an agricultural cooperative owned by nearly 700 cranberry growers in Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and the Eastern Provinces of Canada as well as more than 50 Florida grapefruit growers. Ocean Spray was formed over 75 years ago by three cranberry growers from Massachusetts and New Jersey. Florida grapefruit growers joined the Cooperative in 1976. Ocean Spray is North America's leading producer of canned and bottled juices and juice drinks, and has been the best-selling brand name in the canned and bottled juice category since 1981.

SOURCE Ocean Spray

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