ThermoLife Serves HumanN A Beet Down For Selling Falsely Advertised And Misbranded Products Including SuperBeets, BeetElite, And Neo40

PHOENIX, Sept. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 20, 2018, ThermoLife International, LLC filed suit in Arizona Federal District Court against Neogenis Labs, LLC d/b/a HumanN ("HumanN"). ThermoLife is a leading ingredient and technology supplier in the dietary supplement industry. ThermoLife currently controls at least 27 separate patents including 17 patents with more than 450 claims related to novel uses of Nitrates and Amino Acid/nitrate compounds and compositions in Dietary Supplements and food products. ThermoLife is the market leader in nitrate/nitrite technology.

As alleged in ThermoLife's Complaint, HumanN unfairly competes with ThermoLife in the emerging nitrate/nitrite supplementation market by falsely advertising and falsely marking its products with patent numbers that HumanN's products do not practice. HumanN's top-selling SuperBeets, BeetElite, and Neo40 products are heavily marketed on the internet and through television commercials. Through the use of sophisticated internet marketing tools, HumanN's massive internet presence spreads HumanN's lies to anyone who runs a Google search for "Nitric Oxide."

ThermoLife's Complaint highlights in detail HumanN's sophisticated false advertising scheme and deceptive sales tactics. As ThermoLife alleges, HumanN first claims it has the only method to test "if you are N-O [Nitric-Oxide] deficient." Then, after tricking potential customers about the need for HumanN's "Nitric Oxide" supplements, HumanN falsely advertises that it has the "patented" "Nobel Prize winning" cure for Nitric Oxide deficiency; but, HumanN did not win the Nobel Prize and, in fact, in many instances, its products do not practice any patent held by HumanN. 

As alleged in ThermoLife's Complaint, Human's falsely advertised method for testing Nitric Oxide levels is not "patent pending" as claimed in HumanN's advertising (in fact, the patent was denied and abandoned three years ago) and, worse still, it just doesn't work. Independent peer-reviewed clinical testing performed on HumanN's "N-O Indicator Strips" showed there is no correlation between plasma NO2- and salivary NO3. In layman's terms, contrary to HumanN's false advertising, you cannot test whether an individual is "N-O deficient" by simply testing their saliva. As described in ThermoLife's complaint HumanN is fully aware of these facts and they are just blatantly and intentionally lying to consumers to try and fool them into buying HumanN's products.

According to ThermoLife's Complaint, after falsely claiming that consumers can measure whether they are "N-O deficient" using HumanN's falsely advertised "patent pending" Nitric Oxide Indicator Strips, HumanN then falsely claims that it is the only company that can sell Nitric Oxide supplementation technology. HumanN's advertising makes at least four separate and distinct false claims: (1) that HumanN's top-selling SuperBeets, BeetElite, and Neo40 products practice six patents that HumanN exclusively licensed from the University of Texas; (2) that the licensed patents protect "patented Nitric Oxide technology"; (3) that HumanN's research is "Nobel-Prize winning"; and (4) "there is not any product out there, despite the dozens if not hundreds of products, Nitric Oxide products on the market (food or supplement), that do what our technology does."

As ThermoLife's Complaint explains in detail, all of these advertising statements are provably false and HumanN is fully aware that its advertising statements are false. Contrary to HumanN's advertising, HumanN's SuperBeets, BeetElite, and Neo40 products do not actually practice many of the patents that HumanN marks on the products and repeatedly cites in its advertising. In fact, HumanN's SuperBeets and BeetElite products are falsely marked with six separate patents, but the products do not, and have not ever, practiced one single patent claim covered by any of the six patents listed on the products packaging and widely disseminated in HumanN's false advertising.  Also, contrary to HumanN's false advertising, none of patents that HumanN licenses and falsely marks on its products protect "patented Nitric Oxide technology." In fact, HumanN's co-founder, Dr. Nathan Bryan, applied for 19 patent claims pertaining to generating Nitric Oxide. The United States Patent Office declared all 19 claims unpatentable. Thus, contrary to HumanN's massive and willful false advertising campaign, no one, especially HumanN (whose co-founder Dr. Nathan Bryan was specifically denied 19 patent claims related to generating or increasing Nitric Oxide in an individual), holds a patent "for increasing the Nitric Oxide in an individual."

Finally, as ThermoLife's complaint explains because HumanN has intentionally put false and misleading information on the packaging labels of its SuperBeets, BeetElite, and Neo40 products, Federal Law dictates that SuperBeets, BeetElite, and Neo40 are all "misbranded" and therefore prohibited from being sold in interstate commerce. Accordingly, HumanN's intentionally mislabeled and misbranded products should never have been in the marketplace, nor entitled to any sales.

When reached for comment, ThermoLife's founder, Ron Kramer, offered the following statement: "ThermoLife is the market leader in nitrate/nitrite technology. Scientific evidence proves that Nitric Oxide supplements have many great health benefits. While we obviously believe in this technology, we won't mislead consumers about the benefits of our products and the products sold by the many reputable companies that license our technology. On the other hand, HumanN relies on false representation after false representation to deceive consumers into purchasing HumanN's products, instead of products sold and licensed by ThermoLife. ThermoLife holds the patents for the technology in HumanN's products, not HumanN. HumanN is stealing from ThermoLife and intentionally lying to its customers yet I personally gave HumanN every opportunity to do the right thing here before filing suit but to no avail. HumanN's thinks they are above the law and entitled to steal from us and lie to consumers. Now we will let the courts tell HumanN that they cannot be allowed to continue to trick consumers into purchasing HumanN's falsely advertised, misbranded, and infringing products. If there are any legitimate companies out there who want to fill the upcoming void and market HumanN's formulas with a license from ThermoLife, or vastly improve on HumanN's products and take the market share with our new high nitrate beet root extract, please do not hesitate to contact me."

ThermoLife's Complaint seeks an injunction, barring further false advertising by HumanN and actual damages. As a result of HumanN's willfully false advertising, ThermoLife also seeks an order from the court disgorging HumanN's profits and an award of treble damages. Any Judgment against HumanN here could exceed $50,000,000.00.

ThermoLife is represented in the matter by Gregory B. Collins of Kercsmar & Feltus PLLC.

About ThermoLife International:

Founded in 1998, ThermoLife is a world leader in patented ingredients and technology for use in dietary supplements. ThermoLife controls a global patent portfolio of 27 patents spanning more than 15 countries including more than 450 valid and issued claims on the use of nitrates in dietary supplements. ThermoLife collaborates with leading manufacturers in the dietary supplement industry to provide innovative ingredients to help offer superior patent-protected products to end users.

For more information contact [email protected], and see www.ThermoLife.com, www.NO3-T.com, and www.MaxNox.info.

SOURCE ThermoLife International, LLC

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