Business Notes LITIGATION

The development was touted as the breakthrough of the decade in the baby-care industry: superabsorbency in a thinner diaper. Procter & Gamble successfully test-marketed a diaper containing wood-pulp fluff and gel materials in 1984 and soon afterward brought Ultra Pampers on the market. Before long, Kimberly- Clark introduced a competing product, Huggies Supertrim. Last week both types of diapers were on display in a federal court in Charleston, S.C., where K-C is being sued for allegedly violating P&G's patent on its superabsorbency design.

The trial is a high-stakes duel between the two leaders in the $3.3 billion- a-year disposable-diaper business. P&G has about 47% and K-C 30% of the market. P&G wants its rival to stop manufacturing the superabsorbent Huggies. In its defense, K-C contends that it discovered the technology from its manufacture of tampons and adult diapers.