07/04/2010 Waveboards patent infringed

Alcom Computer Products BV must immediately suspend sales of its waveboards, since the technology it uses infringes the patent rights of the US skateboard company Street Surfing, according to a preliminary injunction issued on 2 December 2009 by a court in The Hague.

Pivoting wheels
Street Surfing has acquired a license from Razor USA to sell patented ‘waveboards’ in the EU. The patent covers the technology used to create the board’s flexible pivoting wheels.

Not new? Not inventive?
Alcom believes that the patent on which Street Surfing bases its claim is invalid due to the fact that it is neither new nor inventive.

Inadequately substantiated
However, the court overruled Alcom’s claims, stating that the argument that the patent was not new was ‘inadequately substantiated’. Alcom was duly ordered to stop its patent infringement with immediate effect.

Ordered to pay costs
As the loser in these summary injunction proceedings, Alcom was also ordered to pay the ‘reasonable’ legal costs of the counterparty. In this case, it amounted to a hefty sum: € 55,757.74. And that’s in addition to its own legal costs.