Remember that incident where a booth at CES got shut down due to alleged patent infringement? Recent development over that issue has turned extremely shady as reports are stating that the company responsible for the raid has since dropped its case against the company that was infringing on their patents.
Future Motion Inc, the company that makes the OneWheel, initially sued Changzhou First International Trade Co. due to alleged patent infringement over the Trotter, an almost identical one-wheeled hoverboard. This, of course, led to the raid that occurred at CES. Due to the raid, Changzhou quickly hired an American law firm to fight these claims.
The argument made by Changzhou is that Future Motion can’t claim a monopoly on one-wheeled board-based electric vehicles. They’vve also claimed that the OneWheel should have never received a patent in the first place as Future Motion was busy marketing the device before going to the office. Jeffrey Black, the lawyer representing Changzhou, claimed that Future Motion kept this information from the judge and claims that Future Motion’s lawsuit is just a method to raise money from investor. Future Motion has denied this allegation of course.
Changzhou is now seeking USD 100,000 to cover damages related to the raid. In addition, the company wants Future Motion to pay for its considerable legal fees. The demands have led to Future Motion retracting their case as the legal fees for this case may potentially break the USD 1 million mark. Though the case has been dismissed, the possibility remains that Future Motion could sue Changzhou sometime in the future.
Source : Bloomberg
