NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A company trying to sell disinfectant wipes is blaming its lawyers for its struggles.
Edward Roberts LLC filed suit on Jan. 20 in New York County Supreme Court against Shipman & Goodwin and its lawyers Andrew Davis and Alfredo Fernandez. Edward Roberts hired the lawyers in March 2020 for work concerning the manufacture and import of disinfeX multi-purpose wipes.
Lawyers were told the formula for the wipes was already in use by a competitor that had obtained permission to sell in the U.S. The lawyers allegedly told Edward Roberts that the wipes were not subject to Environmental Protection Agency rules and did not require registration under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
"Defendants failed to research the product name and failed to find a similar name already registered with the EPA," the suit says. "Defendants failed to advise Plaintiff of the legal effect of the use of a close or confusingly similar product name."
The other product was called "Disinfe-X Disinfecting Wipes." From October 2020-January 2021, Edward Roberts paid $65 million for the manufacture and additional costs associated with nearly 39 million units.
But the EPA in April 2021 told Edward Roberts to stop selling unregistered products, the suit says. The company is stuck with 16 million units it can't sell and is blaming its lawyers for bad guidance.