Back in June, The Watercraft Journal shared the news that Arctic Cat Inc. had won a massive multi-million dollar lawsuit against Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP) over their “controlled thrust steering system” patents. Originally, Arctic Cat was awarded $15.5 million in damages over the patent lawsuit. Shortly after, the jury ruled that because the patent infringement was done willfully, BRP was ordered to pay triple the damages in the amount of nearly $47 million dollars! That’s not where the hurt to BRP’s pocket book ends though.
In August, Arctic Cat Inc. also put in a request to the courts for supplemental damages claiming that because BRP had sold around 5,000 patent infringing Sea-Doo units since the original court verdict. This request for damages totaled $1.5 million dollars. It was granted on August 12th, according to a report in American Snowmobiler.
With that decision, the court also ordered both companies to sit down and negotiate a royalty rate for future sales of infringing Sea-Doo units until the expiration of the 545 patent. A royalty amount of $102.54 per unit was given by the courts as a basis to negotiate off of. Arctic Cat Inc. had requested that the court set the royalty rate, but that request was refused with the courts explaining that it was better for both companies to negotiate themselves.
