these portable packets from heinz are at the center of a new lawsuit. ap photoa michigan food entrepreneur claims the "little dipper" condiment package he patented in 1997 led h.j. heinz co. to develop its dip & squeeze ketchup packets, which it rolled out in february 2010, lawyers in opening statements told a federal court jury in pittsburgh on monday.the trial, expected to last through thursday, will determine whether or not pittsburghbased heinz used david wawrzynski&39s "concrete, new and novel" ideas when it developed the dualpurpose ketchup packets. if the jury rules in the detroit businessman&39s favor and determines heinz agreed to pay for the ideas, a separate trial will begin june 10 on how much heinz owes wawrzynski."heinz says it didn&39t use any of mr. wawrzynski&39s ideas they thought it up all on their own," his attorney, eugene boyle jr. told the jury. "we&39re here to tell you that&39s not true."boyle told the associated press he can&39t say how much wawrzynski is seeking because an expert hired to calculate the sum hasn&39t issued a final report.but heinz attorney david wolfsohn said heinz owes nothing because the dip & squeeze owes nothing to the coneshaped container that wawrzynski invented. drawings of two versions of that product were shown to the jury, including one with a keyholeshaped opening that enables a person to dip a french fry into ketchup, while wiping off excess amounts as it&39s pulled out of the opening.wawrzynski isn&39t claiming heinz copied the exact design. rather, he contends heinz didn&39t have the idea for a ketchup container that could be dipped into and squeezed until they heard his pitch. wolfsohn denied that claim.the dip & squeeze grew out of an earlier idea called the "dunk n squirt" that heinz began working on in 2002 but shelved in 2006 because it couldn&39t find a vendor to make the throwaway ketchup packets cheaply enough, the company says. the packets must be cheap to purchase because fastfood restaurants and others give the packets away for free, wolfsohn said.prototypes developed in 2006 were keystoneshaped like heinz&39s iconic ketchup label and had a peelable top if a customer wanted to dip a fry and a tearoff end so the ketchup could be squeezed, wolfsohn said. except for the keystone shape, the dip & squeeze packets are nearly identical.but boyle insists the idea came from the 44yearold wawrzynski, who began working in the food industry at 13. after working at pizzerias over five years from the time he was 16, wawrzynski launched wok to you, a firm that delivers asian food from 30 different detroitarea restaurants."dave&39s been tinkering with condiment packaging since high school," boyle said.when an earlier letter to heinz didn&39t attract attention, he wrote to thenceo william johnson in march 2008 and met with heinz officials a month later, boyle said.heinz doesn&39t deny the meeting took place, but says the discussions revolved around his handheld, coneshaped container designed to keep french fries from dripping ketchup."the ideas that were discussed at that meeting had nothing to do with the dip & squeeze," wolfsohn said. 
