Hyperice Sues Therabody Over Massage Gun Patent Infringement - Athletech News

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The wellness brand alleges several products made by its rival Therabody infringe on Hyperice’s patented percussion massage technology ​

Hyperice has filed a lawsuit in federal court against Therabody, asserting that the company infringed its recently issued U.S. Patent No. 11,857,482. The patent claims technology dating to 2013, which is used in Hyperice products like its Hypervolt Go 2, Hypervolt 2 and Hypervolt 2 Pro massage guns.

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Hyperice asserts that several Therabody products infringe on the patent, including Theragun Elite, Theragun Pro, Theragun Prime, Theragun Mini, Theragun Sense and TheraFace Pro. Hyperice said it intends to file more lawsuits in the coming weeks against other companies it believes infringed the patent.

“In 2015 Hyperice launched the Raptor, which at the time was the world’s most advanced percussion massage device. In 2018, when we launched the Hypervolt at a more consumer-friendly price point, our business accelerated rapidly – so much so that we began to see an extraordinary amount of Hypervolt knockoffs and imitators enter the market,” said Jim Huether, CEO of Hyperice. “As a company focused relentlessly on innovation and quality to deliver exceptional products to our consumers, we value ingenuity, and we protect our inventions by obtaining patents.”

“We will use the legal system aggressively to clean up the percussion market from imitators and knockoffs who we believe are using Hyperice’s IP in their devices,” Huether added.

Massage Gun Litigation

The massage gun market is substantial; it was valued at around $540 million in 2023 and is expected to grow to over $1 billion in the coming years. Intellectual property disputes in the space have been frequent. Hyperice and Therabody, in particular, have been involved in previous legal disputes.

In late 2019 and early 2020, Therabody filed patent infringement lawsuits in a U.S. District Court in California against Hyperice and Achedaway. In a settlement, Achedaway agreed to cease and desist its use of a product with a massage gun attachment that Therabody alleged infringed its Dampener Attachment. Hyperice, meanwhile, agreed to stop selling a massage device that had the attachment at issue.

Theragun Pro, named by Hyperice as one of the allegedly patent-infringing products sold by Therabody (credit: Therabody)
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In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, Hyperice is represented by Lawrence LaPorte of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, Ben Herbert of Miller Barondess, LLP and Brian Arnold, associate general counsel and head of IP at Hyperice.

“We will aggressively defend our intellectual property rights and take all appropriate steps to ensure that our innovative products and technology are not misappropriated by opportunists seeking to knock us off,” said Jon Howell, general counsel at Hyperice. “Hyperice has successfully removed hundreds of infringing products globally, and will continue to enforce its intellectual property through litigation in federal court as necessary.”

Therabody didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

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