DES MOINES – An Iowa health and beauty product manufacturer has been sued by one of the nation’s largest health care product makers for allegedly duplicating a popular personal lubricant.

New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson and its McNeil-PPC Inc. subsidiary, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Des Moines on Friday claiming Qualis Inc. violated trademark and patent laws.

The lawsuit said Johnson & Johnson and McNeil developed a new product that warmed on contact with skin without irritation, answering a complaint by consumers that previous lubricants were cold on contact.

Johnson claims the product, marketed under the K-Y Warming Liquid brand, was an instant success when it was launched in 2003. The company said the warming product helped boost sales of its entire line of K-Y branded products.

Americans spent more than $170 million on personal lubricants in 2005, the lawsuit said.

Sales in 2003 for the K-Y brand of warming lubricant reached $21 million, capturing 100 percent of the warming lubricant market. Sales rose to $29 million in 2004, but the brand held 77.9 percent of the market. In 2005, sales were $22 million, or 41.3 percent of the warming lubricant market.

“Both sales and market share … have been curtailed as copy-cat products enter the market using McNeil’s patented technology and trade dress that are confusingly similar to McNeil’s,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit claims that Des Moines-based Qualis has manufactured and sold competing brands of warming liquid lubricants to CVS, Eckerd and Rite Aid since at least May 2004.