Bacon pioneer sues over patent
Lawsuit says inventor is the sole creator of cooking system
WILMINGTON, DEL.— David Howard knows Americans love bacon. He spent years developing a system that would make precooked strips of pork belly offering the flavour, texture and appearance of the freshly cooked version. But a joint-development agreement with Hormel Foods Corp. that began in 2007 went bad, leading Howard to pursue a multi-front legal assault seeking to regain control.
This week, Howard, president of Dallas-based HIP Inc., sued Hormel in Delaware federal court, saying it infringed a patent for a hybrid bacon-cooking system.
Howard is the sole inventor and wants an order transferring ownership of the patent — which also was issued May 29 — to him, according to the complaint.
Bacon is big business. The U.S. pork bacon market was $3.3 billion (U.S.) for the 52 weeks ended April 28, according to National Pork Board figures compiled by Nielsen Research.
HIP is seeking royalties and an order blocking further infringement by Hormel over the firm’s Bacon 1 product. Hormel, in a 2016 report, attributed a 6-per-cent growth in sales of refrigerated foods in part to “innovative items,” such as Bacon 1. Howard declined to comment.
“Hormel Foods disagrees with HIP’s allegations, and intends to vigorously defend itself in this matter and protect its intellectual property rights for the hybrid process,” the company said in a statement.
Aseries of fires in bacon-cooking facilities prompted Howard in 1989 to develop a system in the U.K. for cooking slices in a linear convection oven in an environment that included superheated steam.
That system wouldn’t have transferred well to the American market.
So in 1994, Howard conceived the Unitherm Process — cooking sliced bacon in a superheated steam environment in a spiral oven.
In 2004, he developed a version of process that included use of a microwave oven to preheat the bacon. Howard has been granted 18 U.S. patents for cooking and heating processes, systems and ovens.
In 2014, Howard sued for breach of contract, saying Hormel took credit for his idea. The judge dismissed the claims and counterclaims and an appeals court affirmed the ruling.