Puzzyboy to comment.............

http://www.snowgoercanada.com/news-events/latest-news/778-arctic-cat-awarded-triple-damages-of-46-7-million-in-patent-infringement-lawsuit

 

Court rules that BRP willfully infringed Arctic Cat’s patents on safety technology

June 14, 2016 06:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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.

Edited June 15, 20169 yr by Poncho

By the way the first rider forward sled was not a Ski-Doo it was a Yamaha!!

 Look at where the motor was mounted. 

Edited June 21, 20169 yr by Badger**

Underneath that seat looks like a Axys . 

6 hours ago, bladefever said:

Hmmm. Are you talking about who copied a pyramid frame? 

The blade was cool when it came out....but it was still a tub style sled with the bars/rider waayyy behind the engine and the front suspension hinged from the outer edge of the frame instead  of the center.  But boy does that drive shaft mounted brake look familiar....although the XP has the rider's foot right next to it instead of a foot or more behind it.  They did get rid of those stupid trailing arms though.  

Edited June 21, 20169 yr by Mikeadoo

3 hours ago, Axys1 said:

By the way the first rider forward sled was not a Ski-Doo it was a Yamaha!!

 Look at where the motor was mounted. 

When riding your left toe might be 1/2" away from the brake disc. Unless you like to ride with your feet behind your body. The big deal was to create a rigid chassis. That allowed the major components to stay aligned. 

10 hours ago, Axys1 said:

By the way the first rider forward sled was not a Ski-Doo it was a Yamaha!!

 Look at where the motor was mounted. 

Oh look, yellow skiis and a beaver tail... 29 years and counting Polaris, 29 years LoL

On 19/06/2016 at 11:19 AM, Mikeadoo said:

Forget about the REV platform???  It's the one that everybody else copied.....

Nope.

Wrong!!

 

Another company had rider forward before that yellow snot Bucket.