Good thing No Shave November is over because razor industry leader Gillette is suing the Dollar Shave Club for an alleged infringement of its patented technology.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Gillete filed a patent lawsuit this Thursday against Dollar Shave Club Inc., an online subcription service that in just three years took Gillette's dominance in the market and grabbed eight percent of the $3 billion U.S. market for razors and blades.
In a related report by Business Insider, the Dollar Shave Club was founded in 2011 and launched its service in March 2012, which offered razors at a significant discount compared to Gillette and what's more, the razord blade is mailed directly to the customer.
Procter and Gamble, Gillette's parent company, states on its lawsuit that the razor subscription company infringed on its patent, issued in 2004 that involves two coatings used to strengthen the edge of a blade and protect it from wear and tear.
The P&G Company uses that coating on the Mac 3, Venus and Fusion products, among others in its lineup.
Damon Jones, the company's spokesman, said that the company routinely tests the competitor's products and that they had reason to believe that the Dollar Shave Club was making changes to its products.
Moreover, he said that they evaluated the blades and discovered that it allegedly did an infringement.
It's interesting to note that this suit comes after the 120-year old razor company was found to be slow to respond to the rise of its online rivals.
Gillette, although it controls more than 60 percent of the U.S. retail market, only has 20 percent of the online shaving market. It has since launched its own subscription service last year called with a very original and unique name - Gillette Shave Club.
Procter & Gamle chose not to disclose how many subscribers its shave club has, but since its relaunch in June, the company's e-commerce share of blade and razors has increased four percentage points according to the company.
It seems that Gillette has a habit of turning to the court to battle competitors. In 2014, it also filed a lawsuit to a small toothpaste manufacturer, Hello Products, for saying that its products was 99 percent natural on its package.
Jones added that, "We take every violation of our intellectual property seriously, and when necessary, we take legal action to defend our business as we have in the past and will continue to do in the future."
According to Tech Crunch, the Dollar Shave Club has declined to comment regarding the matter.
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