Patent infringement lawsuits are not uncommon, especially in a competitive technologically driven environment such as snowmobile manufacturing. In fact, OSM Editor Bourgeois, who worked for one of the big four for several years, said such claims are much more common than most people would imagine. What is unusual though, is to make a public announcement about a particular patent infringement lawsuit. We can only speculate the public disclosure by Polaris is an attempt to leverage something more or perhaps simply make a statement. Its no secret Polaris has been gunning for Ski-Doo since the Valcourt maker knocked Polaris off the market share leader mountain not long after the 2003 Ski-Doo Rev was introduced. Ironically, early this year, Ski-doo was forced to go public with their own patent infringement claim against Arctic Cat after investors in the Minneapolis/St. Paul community caught wind of the battle and began to raise questions. Could this be another case of managing share holder and the investment community’s pocket books? Here is the official release from Polaris which serves up few if any details.

MINNEAPOLIS (June 14, 2012) – Polaris Industries Inc. today announced it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP) in U.S. District Court.  The lawsuit specifically details alleged infringements of patents by BRP that were issued to Polaris.

The company is not disclosing specific details of the lawsuit at this time, but the patents in question in this case relate to the suspension systems of trail performance and crossover snowmobiles, product categories in which both companies design, manufacture and sell products.  Polaris alleges that BRP violated patents owned by Polaris, and knowingly continued to violate these patents after receiving written notice.

“For more than 55 years, a key foundation of our culture and success at Polaris has been innovation,” said Marlys Knutson, spokesperson for Polaris. “We have a respectful relationship with BRP, but we always have and always will vigorously defend our intellectual property.”