Ski Manufacturer Turns Patent Troll, Igniting Patent Response & Pissing Off Potential Customers

from the bad-chess-players dept

Fri, Oct 29th 2010 12:07pm — Mike Masnick

Crosbie Fitch alerts us to the news that skiing manufacturer Armada apparently secured a patent 7,690.674 earlier this year on a "snow riding implement," and the company has started sending out threat letters to a bunch of competitors. Now, two interesting things have happened in response. First, at least one of the companies threatened, Rossignol, has responded by pulling out one of its own patents (6,986,525 and filing a lawsuit against Armada for infringement, while also asking for declaratory judgment that it does not infringe on Armada's patent:

Rossignol more or less has admitted that, while it has this patent, it's basically just held it for defensive purposes, such as when someone else threatens it with patent infringement.

The second interesting thing is that if you read through the threads on either of the links forums above, you see a ton of customers swearing off Armada products. Oops. As Crosbie notes in his submission:

"One thing that patent trolls seem to be unaware of is the growing awareness in their customers of patents as a tool of extortion, so when a market player plays dirty, it's not just their competition they piss off, but their market, especially their current and potential customers."

Of course... that only applies to "trolls" who also make products...

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Filed Under: backlash, patents, skiing
Companies: armada, rossignol

12 Comments

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Nosybear, 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:16pm

Patent Trolling on Skis
Dang, and I was just thinking of buying a pair of Rossi boots....
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a-dub (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:21pm

I am beginning to see that the companies that engage in this type of activity do not value their customers.
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AJ, 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:40pm

Re: Patent Trolling on Skis
LOL ... I love the response letter from Armada, someone posted it on the forum linked above...

http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3032921&postcount=62

From what I understand... the community members believe that Armada stole a design, got a patent on it, and now is trying to sue the people they stole the design from...

What? Are they taking this right from the AA"s playbook?
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AJ, 29 Oct 2010 @ 12:47pm

Correction
Armada did not file, they sent a "extortion/Cease and desist" letter, and Rossi retaliated by filing a lawsuit of their own...
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 1:04pm

Mike, you should've mentioned that bit a while back with the patent office trying to get through the backlog of patents by just approving them all. Someone successfully patenting a "snow riding implement" seems like it might be related.
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Mike42 (profile), 29 Oct 2010 @ 2:18pm

He-LO Microsoft...
Perhaps Microsoft should take a hint from this, stop extorting money from phone manufacturers for loading Android on their handsets, and JUST COMPETE with other handsets ON THE OPEN MARKET.
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abc gum, 29 Oct 2010 @ 5:32pm

Armada? Never heard of them
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2010 @ 6:08pm

This is why I advise the use of proxy entities, who don't practice anything but law while collecting fees.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2010 @ 9:31am

Once again the idiots at the USPTO create litigation instead of protection. The blind leading the blind. They can't even research their current patents. Sounds like a database programming gig for someone!
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staff, 30 Oct 2010 @ 5:10pm

truth about trolls
"Patent Troll"

Call it what you will...patent hoarder, patent troll, non-practicing entity, etc. It all means one thing: �we�re using your invention and we�re not going to pay�.

For the truth about trolls, please see http://truereform.piausa.org.
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Jack, 1 Nov 2010 @ 4:53pm

Re: truth about trolls
Truth ?
You can't handle the truth
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wvhillbilly, 3 Nov 2010 @ 7:44pm

Re: "Snow riding implement"
What!? Does the Armada patent cover every device that rides on snow? I know patent trolls like to make their patents as broad as possible, but this takes the cake.

Did Armada ever think about prior art on all these "snow riding implements"? Such things have been around a lot longer than I have.
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