In January 2013, RIA filed suit in U.S. District Court against David Hedman and ThermaPure in an effort to invalidate a family of patents held by ThermaPure, TPE Associates, and Hedman. Many RIA members have been sued by ThermaPure and accused of infringing at least one of the patents, U.S. Patent No. 6,327,812. Additionally, many RIA members have paid to license all the patents, either as a condition of settling litigation or to avoid litigating in the first instance.

According to court documents, "ThermaPure has initiated at least 17 lawsuits asserting infringement of the '812 Patent since 2010, some of which involve Restoration Industry members." RIA leadership reviewed all eight issued patents owned by the three defendants. Additional patent applications owned by the defendants are still pending at the USPTO. Of the eight patents, one involved a process that was determined to not affect the restoration industry. The seven remaining patents were all identified to be interrelated with and expand upon claims from the original '812 Patent. RIA members had received either litigation threats or licensing demands, or both, as to one or more of those seven patents.