In a federal courtroom in Pittsburgh, Detroit-area entrepreneur David Wawrzynski is suing H.J. Heinz, insisting he gave the company the idea for Dip & Squeeze ketchup packets.
Opening statements were on Monday.
Teresa F. Lindeman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
To win his case, the Detroit-area entrepreneur needs to convince the jury that he helped the Pittsburgh food company solve the nagging problem of how to create a cleaner, more convenient single-serve package for fast-food restaurants that would also have a side effect of selling more ketchup.
For Heinz to prevail, the company needs to convince jurors that its European division had created a similar packet as far back as 2002 but efforts to bring the concept to the U.S. market had been bogged down in issues of cost, only to be revived during an innovation push in 2008.
