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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, April 14, 2010
UMass sues Boston firm over Alzheimer's supplement
By Mass High Tech staff
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The University of Massachusetts filed suit in federal court in Boston Tuesday alleging that a Boston firm is violating UMass trademarks through web-based sales of a vitamin supplement intended to aid victims of Alzheimer’s disease.
The suit, which seeks treble damages based on the company’s unspecified profits, names as defendents a Beacon Street company identified as Universal Sequence Inc., doing business as MemoryXL, and an individual named Richard F. Peisch, doing business as MemXL.com and MyMXL.com.
According to the civil complaint filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley, UMass attorneys and a private law firm, researchers from University of Massachusetts Lowell developed a dietary supplement that was a “formulation for neuroprotective and cognitive function” several years ago, and trademarked the name MemoryXL.
The suit details how UMass entered into a licensing agreement with Universal Sequence in January 2009, giving USI an exclusive worldwide license to use the MemoryXL trademark, and later giving USI permission to set up a website under the name memxl.com to commercialize MemoryXL. However, the suit charges that the deal was cancelled later in 2009 for USI’s non-payment of fees to UMass, and that USI continued to use the trademark in selling supplements through a 800-number and its website, www.mymxl.com.
UMass claims that it has ended its relationship with USI and Peisch. However, the suit also alleges, “Defendants use the MemoryXL® mark to direct Internet traffic from the former ‘memxl.com’ website to their new ‘mymxl.com’ website. When an internet user searches for the former ‘memxl.com’ website, they are expressly instructed that ‘MemoryXL has moved to www.mymxl.com.’”
The mymxl website promotes MXL as a supplement that doesn’t stop or cure Alzheimer’s but does help patients to function better. The site includes information about clinical trials and other research but doesn’t identify the owners behind the site.
While telephone directories don’t list numbers for USI, a man identifying himself as Dick Peisch at a number listed for a company called Medical Billing at the same Beacon Street address today said that he is associated with the mymxl website but that he knew nothing about the lawsuit. He declined further comment at the time.
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