With the move away from lead as the chief material in wheel weights, the competition between different technologies – and companies – has heated up.

On May 17, Hennessy Industries, producer of Bada brand wheel weights, filed a patent infringement suit against Perfect Equipment Inc.

In the suit, Hennessy claimed Perfect Equipment infringed on a patent granted on Nov. 29, 2011, regarding the design of steel wheel weight clips, which attach the weights to a wheel rim.

In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Hennessy claims Perfect Equipment has produced and sold steel wheel weights using clips that encroach on its patent. The subject weights, according to the complaint, include Perfect Equipment’s PST series, AWST series, MCST series, LHST series, IAWST series, ENST series, FNST series and TST series products.

In a statement from the company, Perfect Equipment said: “Both Perfect Equipment and Hennessy maintain valid patents on many wheel balance solutions currently available in the market. Perfect Equipment believes that its patents on its steel wheel weight technology are not encroaching on any Hennessy patents and has expressed such in meetings between the two parties. While we cannot comment further on open issues, Perfect Equipment is confident in its intellectual property."

Hennessy is seeking “damages adequate to compensate for the infringement, together with interest and cost,” as well as a ruling enjoining Perfect Equipment from selling weights using the questioned clip design.