Poisonous Optima Dog Food: Product Liability Or Blame The Counterfeiters?

Mr Ryan McLaughlin, blogger of Life in Suzhou, wrote about the death of Addie his beloved Golden Retriever around Christmas, read here. According to Mr McLauglin the cause is probably poisonous dog food. Addie was fed dog food from Optima, which is sold by food giant Mars, Inc.

Andrew Schneider of Seattlepi.com wrote: "Mars is aware of recent reports that dogs in the People's Republic of China have died as a result of consuming what appeared to be Optima brand pet food. However, Mars does not sell Optima branded products in China," Fair wrote me in an e-mail. "Our initial findings suggest that the affected pet food was not manufactured by, nor under the authority of, Mars or any of its affiliated companies." She told me that Mars only sells that dog food in Taiwan. But that statement does nothing to clarify the source of the poisoned food because Chinese officials said the Optima that sickened the dogs was imported to China through a Taiwan company, Natural Pet." Read Mr Schneider's article here.

So it is unclear whether Optima is the source or a counterfeit version of Optima. Product liability is for every company of crucial importance to enforce verociously every infringement of their intellectual property rights. And if they are liable to compensate in a decent way.