ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240007
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
THOSE DRAWSTRINGS that hold up your sweat pants are the focus of a patent battle in federal court in Roanoke. The size of the industry is said to approach $20 million.
Anyone who has ever struggled to rethread the drawstring in a pair of sweat pants can appreciate why a manufacturer whose drawstrings don't slip out so easily took a competitor to court Tuesday to protect its patented design.
NFA Corp. of Brookline, Mass., said it patented the first drawstring elastic for the waistbands of athletic wear about a dozen years ago. The invention triggered a multimillion-dollar industry, but competitors have begun to emulate NFA's product in recent years.
In the latest of a series of patent-infringement cases, NFA claimed the drawstring systems of two smaller competitors are illegal copies. Not only that, they cost less, a threat to NFA's dominance of its very specialized market.
In the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, NFA said it wanted Asheboro Elastics Corp. of Asheboro, N.C., and Southern Webbing Mills Inc. of Greensboro, N.C., stopped before they steal its biggest customers, who put the bands in sweat pants, shorts and swim trunks.
The case, filed March 5, is being argued here in part because those customers include Tultex Corp. and Bassett-Walker Inc. of Martinsville. Others are Sara Lee Knit Products of Greensboro, N.C., and Champion Products Inc. of Winston-Salem, N.C., but the drawstrings are found around the world.
Drawstring construction is a precise science. NFA weaves its drawstring into an elastic band. The result is a flexible waistband with a cord tunneled within the fabric, which makes the cord stay in place. The competitors secure their cords alongside the waistband rather than within it.
In a preliminary ruling Tuesday, Judge James Turk said he saw little difference in the competing versions. He threatened to order Asheboro Elastics to severely limit its drawstring sales at least until the case goes to trial in August, unless Asheboro would do so voluntarily. Asheboro Elastic executives agreed to cooperate. Southern Webbing Mills already had agreed to do so.
Before he ruled, Turk at least three times asked that the two sides try to reconcile. "There's no way you can work this out?" the judge said. He met privately in his chamber with company executives, but no one budged.
The size of the drawstring waistband industry approaches $20 million, said William Poff, NFA's Roanoke lawyer. NFA's share is about $15 million, he said.
Tultex alone buys 10 million yards of drawstring elastic yearly for its sweat pants, said spokeswoman Kathy Rogers.
Despite the product's importance to garment makers, Asheboro Elastic's lawyers told Turk they realized some people may view the dispute as inconsequential. "The nation's well being is not at stake," James Lester said in court papers.
But he said Asheboro Elastic had a right to design a band to compete with NFA's and believed it had done so without infringing on its patent.
For now, at least, Turk has allowed NFA to retain what Poff described as a monopoly or near-monopoly in the narrow industry known as drawstring elastic.
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