Zenith formulator Vietal Nutrition has provided Awakend with a prepared statement explaining the origins of the supplement.
The move follows Awakend failing to be transparent about the origins of Zenith supplement, leading to ongoing uncertainty.
BehindMLM suspected something was amiss with Zenith after we spotted Awakend distributing a doctored research study.
The study was published in 2008, some fourteen years before Zenith existed. To get around that Awakend inserted “Zenith” into the study without explanation, leading us to report on the study being doctored.
This prompted Zenith to include a disclaimer, acknowledging the study pertained to “the supplement”.
This document has been edited to remove the original brand name of the supplement now known as Zenith.
The “original brand name” was Trisynex, widely available for far cheaper than what Awakend had priced Zenith at. Pointing this out created uncertainty as to the retail viability of Awakend as an MLM opportunity.
The FTC has repeatedly clarified that MLM companies without significant retails ales are operating as pyramid schemes.
In what appears to be an effort to put the matter to rest, Zenith formulator has provided a statement from their attorneys.
Said statement has been attached as a foreword to the 2008 Trisynex study provided on Awakend’s website.
As I understand it, Trisynex was first marketed by Max International as Max WLX.
Sometime in the late 2000s Max International and Imagenetix developed their own Trisynex clone formula, which appears to have been a disaster (people fell ill, the supplement didn’t work etc.).
Long story short; Max International is still around, Max WLX and Imagenetix aren’t. TriPharma sued Imagenetix into bankruptcy oblivion in 2012.
TriPharma claim to be formulators of the original Trisynex supplement.
Trisynex … has been utilized by TriPharma LLC in the marketing and sale of TriPharma’s weight loss product since 2007.
TriPharma has since rebranded as Vietal Nutrition.
Enter Roger Catarino (right), and his companies First Fruits Business Ministry and First Fruits Beverages Company.
TriPharma claim Catarino and his First Fruits businesses have “sought to acquire, infringe upon, and even adulterate” Trisynex.
A search for Catarino’s First Fruit companies on Pacer reveals no less than 40 case dockets – a good number of which pertain to TriPharma.
Vietal Nutrition, as TriPharma, claims it obtained
a 2013 injunction and nearly $4.5 million judgment for fraud against infringing parties Robert Catarino personally, and his companies First Fruits Business Ministry LLC, and now defunct First Fruits Beverage Company LLC.
TriPharma LLC has fought to defend those rights against baseless claims and fraudulent activities by Mr. Catraino and the First Fruits infringers in the California courts, including seeking to enforce the 2013 Judgment that has grown, with interest, to over $7 million, still unpaid by Mr. Catarino and the First Fruits infringers.
In 2018 Vietal Nutrition, as TriPharma, let the Trisynex trademark lapse. This was capitalized on by Catarino and First Fruits.
In 2018 … My Catarino and the First Fruits infringers filed to register the trademark Trisynex in (an) effort to steal the tradename and create uncertainty where none existed.
TriPharma immediately filed its challenge to the First Fruits filing, which is currently pending with the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Not to take anything away from Vietal Nutrition but, it appears presently, the Trisynex trademark issue is in fact unresolved.
Right here, right now, as Awakend is launching its MLM opportunity with Zenith, Catarino and First Fruits are marketing and selling Trisynex.
And they’re doing it with the same patents and studies Vieteal Nutrition markets their Zenith version with.
I believe the most prominent example of First Fruits’ Trisynex is Shelly Jo Hypno Aminos’ “TrimFit with Trisynex”.
TrimFit retails for $39.99 for 120 capsules (a serving size is 2 capsules). Awakend’s Zenith is $135 a month on autoship.
TrimFit can also be directly purchased from Catarino at TrimFit for Life.
$39.95 is the asking price, again well below Zenith’s $135 a month price-tag.
Vietal Nutrition maintains
TriPharma’s ownership over the (Trisynex) clinical studies, and the original product and formula utilized to manufacture the original product cannot be disputed.
Again, not to take anything away from Vietal Nutrition, but that doesn’t mean much when Catarino and First Fruits are openly selling Trisynex and have been for years.
Who actually owns the Trisynex patent as of September 2022?
Vietal Nutrition tie Trisynex to United States Patent No. 6,899,892.
Trisynex, one of the tradenames originally utilized to market the revolutionary weight loss product developed based on United States Patent No. 6,899,892 entitled “Methods to Reduce Body Fat”, has been utilized by TriPharma LLC in the marketing and sale of TriPharma’s weight loss product since 2007.
I tried looking this number up on the USPTO website, and promptly gave up (absolute website design fail).
Thankfully there’s a copy of the patent over at Google Patents. As of March 19th, 2022, United States Patent No. 6,899,892 is marked “expired-lifetime”.
Looking up what this status means, reveals
An expired patent no longer affords the inventor or patent owner any protection .
When the patent expires, the concept becomes available for any organization or individual to freely use, redesign, and market without the original patent owner’s permission.
Before expiring, United States Patent No. 6,899,892 was last assigned to First Fruits Business Ministry in July 2011. A bunch of litigation in California is recorded, but no change of assignee.
Something else not addressed by Vietal Nutrition is whether First Fruits’ Trisynex formulation is identical to their own or not.
TrimFit’s supplied nutritional label and marketing claims certainly suggest it is:
When I last checked in at Awakend they’d yet to make available Zenith’s product label.
They’ve since added a “view label” button to their website…
…but at time of publication it doesn’t do anything.
Finally if all of this wasn’t confusing enough, the 2008 study Awakend provides pertains to Imagentix’s version of Trisynex. Which they stopped selling what, a decade ago?
Imagenetix commissioned the study, begging the question why TriPharma didn’t run their own study. They sued Imagenetix into oblivion over Trisynex, remember?
I didn’t create this mess. I don’t know how to fix this mess but I do have some thoughts on it.
I think Zenith’s launch has been premature. Put simple, you can’t hope to compete against what appears to be an identical product being sold for almost half the cost.
I don’t think the patent situation is as slam-dunk as Vietal Nutrition are making it out to be, otherwise how on Earth is Catarino’s Trisynex still around after all these years.
He’s the one that’s been selling Trisynex up until Zenith, not Vietal Nutrition. And why is a study commissioned Imagentix being paraded around, considering they’ve been sued both by Vietal Nutrition and First Fruits?
Surely over the past fourteen years Catarino and Vietal Nutrition have had ample time to get their own study done?
Taking a step back and assessing where Awakend is as an MLM company, at the moment Zenith hasn’t been shipped out. Awakend’s website states Zenith is “coming fall 2022”.
If this mess with Catarino and First Fruits isn’t resolved by Fall 2022, Zenith is dead in the water. No retail customer in their right mind is purchasing Zenith for $135 a month when TrimFit retails at $39.95.
That leaves Awakend distributors selling Zenith to Awakend distributors, which as per the FTC would make it a pyramid scheme. And then of course there’s the NFT garbage on top of that – but thankfully that’s a separate issue with respect to Zenith.
Given Vietal Nutrition’s statement is a whole page, I was hoping it’d clarify once and for all what is going on with Trisynex. It doesn’t, and we’ve now got an MLM company built on “exclusive rights” – that don’t appear to be exclusive at all.
And, more importantly, how can you give exclusive rights to a product you don’t own the patent to?
Unless I’m missing something, United States Patent No. 6,899,892 is expired and anyone can use it.
Given Awakend and Zenith popped up a few months after United States Patent No. 6,899,892 expired, is all that’s happening is Awakend is being manufactured based on the premise anyone can manufacture Trisynex now?
If so, what on Earth is with all the exclusivity nonsense and posturing from Vietal Nutrition?
TriPharma will continue to enforce its rights, and rid the marketplace of fraudsters and infringers who have sought to delay the product from being available for use and benefit by the public.
Any other party, including Mr. Catarino and the First Fruits infringers, marketing a product using the UCONN clinical study owned by Vietal Nutrition, and licensed to Awakened, is infringing upon Vietal/Awakend’s intellectual property rights, and will be cleansed from the marketplace to prevent confusion and harm to the public.
What am I missing here?!
In conclusion, if anyone can manufacture Trisynex and Awakend hope to sell the same formula for $135 a month over $39.95 a bottle, Zenith is DOA.
Once sales attributable to pyramid recruitment die off, all that’s left are overpriced Awakend “founder” cartoon NFTs.
I’m not expecting any but, if there any further updates, I’ll add them below.