Patent case: Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. v. Arctic Cat Inc., USA

A jury’s verdict that snowmobile frame patents asserted against Arctic Cat were indefinite and invalid as anticipated or obvious was supported by substantial evidence.

A federal district court correctly upheld a jury verdict invalidating two Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. snowmobile frame patents because substantial evidence supported the jury’s findings that Bombardier’s patent related to rider seat position was indefinite, and its patent for a pyramidal brace assembly was anticipated by prior art snowmobiles, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The federal district court in Minnesota properly denied Bombardier’s post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law, the Federal Circuit ruled, rejecting Bombardier’s contention that the strength of its evidence was sufficient to nullify the jury’s verdict (Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. v. Arctic Cat Inc., September 20, 2019, Tunheim, J.).

Case date: 20 September 2019

Case number: No. 18-2388

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.