The Toilet Paper Battle

Summary

Sir Roger Penrose, a Nobel laureate, defended his intellectual property against Kleenex's use of his 'Penrose Tiling' design in their toilet paper, leading to a legal dispute that was settled out of court.

Abstract

In 1974, Sir Roger Penrose discovered 'Penrose Tiling', a non-repeating pattern for covering an infinite plane, and patented it in 1979. The conflict arose in 1997 when Kleenex introduced a new toilet paper design that incorporated Penrose's discovery without permission. Penrose was taken aback by the commercial use of his mathematical concept and filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, demanding the destruction of the toilet paper stock. The dispute was resolved when Penrose and Kimberly-Clark, Kleenex's parent company, reached a mutually agreeable settlement, avoiding a protracted legal battle.

Opinions

Penrose was shocked and felt his intellectual property was misused for commercial purposes by Kleenex.
The lawsuit was filed on the grounds of copyright infringement, with Penrose initially seeking the destruction of the infringing products.
The public is invited to consider whether Penrose's reaction was an overreaction, implying a debate over the appropriateness of his response.
The settlement between Penrose and Kimberly-Clark suggests a recognition by both parties of the value and importance of intellectual property rights.

Nobel Laureate vs Kleenex

What happens when a multinational company decides to make design changes to its product? A famous mathematician and noble laureate defend his discovery. Not sure how these two are related? I wasn’t either.

In 1974, Sir Roger Penrose has discovered what is known today as ‘Penrose Tiling’.

Just to get a rough idea of this concept, Penrose tiling is a set of tiles that can be used to cover an infinite plane in a pattern that never repeats itself.

A few years later, in 1979, Penrose successfully listed his discovery as a patent.

The so-called battle begins now. In 1997, Kleenex has made a new toilet paper design — ‘featuring’ the discovery of Penrose.

Penrose was quite shocked to see the use to which his discovery had been put and sued the toilet paper company for copyright infringement. On top of that, Penrose demanded that all stocks of this toilet paper be destroyed.

Eventually, Penrose dropped the lawsuit with Kimberly-Clark (owners of Kleenex) after coming to a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Let me know what do you think about this, was Penrose over-reacting in your opinion?

Today I Learned

The Toilet Paper Battle

Nobel Laureate vs Kleenex

Resources

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