Arctic Cat Awarded Triple Damages of $46.7 Million in Patent-Infringement Lawsuit Against Bombardier Recreational Products In...
June 14 2016 - 5:20PM
Business Wire
Court rules that BRP willfully infringed
Arctic Cat’s patents on safety technology
Arctic Cat Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAT) announced that a federal court
judge for the Southern District of Florida (Miami) awarded triple
damages of $46.7 million USD in a patent-infringement suit filed by
Arctic Cat against Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (TSE:
BBD.B) and BRP U.S. Inc. Initially, a jury awarded Arctic Cat just
over $15 million USD on June 1, 2016, after unanimously finding
that the defendants willfully infringed all asserted claims in two
of Arctic Cat’s patents for an innovative off-throttle assisted
steering technology. Arctic Cat’s technology is an important safety
mechanism designed to prevent on-water collisions and accidents in
personal watercraft (PWC). Today, the federal judge tripled the
damages in the case, due to the makers of the Sea-Doo jet
propulsion PWC committing willful infringement.
Christopher Metz, Arctic Cat’s president and chief executive
officer, stated: “We are very pleased with today’s court ruling.
The jury and federal court judge found that each of our patents in
this case were valid, and agreed that BRP willfully infringed on
our patents over the course of many years.”
The suit concerned a long-standing safety concern in the PWC
industry: the inability to steer PWC once the throttle is released,
which can occur in emergency situations, particularly for
inexperienced riders. Arctic Cat developed a novel and effective
off-throttle thrust mechanism to make PWC safer. The technology
provides riders with temporary “steerable thrust” when the rider
turns in off-throttle situations to help prevent fatalities and
injuries from collisions. The United States Patent and Trademark
Office awarded Arctic Cat patents for this off-throttle steering
technology, entitled “Controlled Thrust Steering System for
Watercraft."
At issue in the case were 151,790 model year 2009 through 2015
Sea-Doo personal watercraft. These models infringed 10 claims of
Arctic Cat’s U.S. Patent Numbers 6,793,545 (“the ‘545 Patent”) and
6,568,969 (“the ‘969 Patent”). Nicholas Boebel of the law firm
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP and Aaron Myers, Niall MacLeod and
Diane Peterson, co-counsel at Kutak Rock LLP, represented Arctic
Cat at trial.
About Arctic Cat Inc.The
Arctic Cat® brand is among the most widely recognized and respected
in the recreational vehicle industry. The company designs,
engineers, manufactures and markets all-terrain vehicles (ATVs),
side-by-sides and snowmobiles, in addition to related parts,
garments and accessories under the Arctic Cat® and Motorfist® brand
names. Arctic Cat Inc. is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under
the ticker symbol “ACAT.” More information about Arctic Cat and its
products is available at www.arcticcat.com.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160614006467/en/
At Arctic Cat Inc.:Christopher Eperjesy,
763-354-1791Chief Financial Officerceperjesy@arcticcat.comorMichael
Okerlund, 763-354-1819Vice President, Legal
Affairsmokerlund@arcticcat.comorAt PadillaCRT:Shawn
Brumbaugh, 612-455-1754shawn.brumbaugh@padillacrt.com
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