Garmin International Inc. on Wednesday announced it plans to appeal a decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC) that found Garmin’s DownVü sonar products to be in violation of at least one patent held by Navico and used in Lowrance’s DownScan technology.
This ruling reverses an initial determination issued by an Administrative Law Judge this past July
In its latest ruling, the ITC recommended that the Garmin products that feature DownVü be excluded from import into the United States and that Garmin cease selling, advertising, and aiding or assisting distributors or retailers in selling all its infringing DownVü products, including the echo, echoMAP and GPSMAP products with their respective transducers.
The ITC also ruled that one of Navico’s claims that Garmin infringed on a patented scanning sonar design was invalid. The ITC also noted that the patent infringements appeared to not be intentional.
This marks the second time in as many months the ITC has ruled against Garmin in a matter involving patent infringement claims. Last month, Johnson Outdoors, the parent company of Humminbird, received a favorable ruling against Garmin after it was determined Garmin’s SideVü sonars infringed on six Johnson Outdoors patent claims.
According to a release circulated by Garmin on Wednesday, the ruling will have no impact on Garmin products already purchased by Garmin customers and dealers, or any products purchased going forward.
The impacted transducers will be available shortly with the alternative design solution. While the redesign does address the ITC’s findings, end-users and dealers will not notice a change to user interface, installation or compatibility with existing Garmin products or accessories.
“Garmin intentionally designed its products to prevent infringement of Navico’s patents. We disagree with the ITC and plan to appeal the determination,” said Andrew Etkind, Garmin vice president and general counsel. “However, as with the Johnson Outdoors ITC determination we announced in November, we have already taken steps to ensure that we can continue to provide Garmin DownVü scanning sonar products. Garmin has already designed, implemented, and manufactured an alternative design that addresses the issue in this ITC ruling.”
The ITC orders have a 60-day period before taking full effect, a release issued by Navico on Wednesday said resellers of Garmin DownVü products risk willfully infringing Navico’s patents if they continue to sell Garmin DownVü products, and they could be subject to an infringement suit.
“We are extremely pleased that the ITC has ruled in our favor,” said Navico CEO Leif Ottosson. “Our innovative DownScan Imaging provides real benefits to fishermen, and we have invested considerable time, effort and resources to develop and bring it to market. Our patents are designed to protect that investment.
“We offered our competitors the opportunity to license our technology and incorporate it into their products for the benefit of their customers – and many have. This offer was also made to Garmin, but they declined – putting everyone who sells their products in a difficult position. The situation is unfortunate for many dealers and distributors in the marine electronics marketplace, but we will continue to vigorously defend the intellectual property that protects our innovations and our leading position in the marketplace.”
