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MonaVie of South Jordan has settled lawsuits claiming it owed royalties on licensing agreements related to its nutritional juices.
Attorneys for the parties filed notice in U.S. District Court that they have settled but gave no details.
In February of last year, a company called K2A LLC and co-founders Alex Schauss and Kenneth Murdock sued. They claimed MonaVie had failed to honor agreements that were to give them partial ownership and a share of revenue related to sales where Schauss or his name were used to market its products that contain açai, a fruit found in Brazil.
MonaVie markets expensive fruit juices that it claims have greater nutritional value than other fruits. Schauss said in court papers he came up with the process of freeze drying açai that preserves some of its nutritional value and that he and Murdock formed K2A to market the process.
K2A holds patents on the freeze-dried açai process and said in its lawsuit that the license for those patents held by MonaVie had been withdrawn because of MonaVie's failure to fulfill agreements.
MonaVie countersued Schauss and his company, the American Institute for Biosocial and Medical Research, saying Schauss had confirmed in 2008 that MonaVie and a related company had not defaulted under the license agreement and that they had subsequently entered into a new consulting agreement.
K2A and Murdock then claimed MonaVie owed royalties to it and not to AIBMR and Schultz. MonaVie said it had met the terms of the licensing agreements.
A spokesman for MonaVie, Eric Eames, said terms of the settlements were confidential but the "efficacy, ingredients, and taste of our products were unchanged through settling this case. MonaVie products will still contain acai pulp and acai powder that are protected by an intellectual property, and will remain as key ingredients for us going forward."
Notice of the settlement and dismissal of the lawsuit was filed Thursday.