Following the news about the apparent legal dispute between Alpinestars and Dainese (concerning aspects of their competitive motorcycle airbag product offerings), Dainese has moved to counter claims made by Alpinestars in a press release that denied that Dainese had taken any legal action against them in Germany (or elsewhere).
According to Alpinestars the dispute centres on an alleged patent infringement concerning the material it uses in the construction of its airbag.
Dainese has countered Alpinestars’ claim that Dainese had not instigated legal proceedings against it by saying that "legal action has in fact been taken in the German market with a Munich court granting an injunction on the sale of Tech-Air products in Germany and that similar action is underway in Italy".
Dainese’s statement says that the Munich court "released two autonomous preliminary injunctions against a German Alpinestars dealer, confirming that the Alpinestars Tech-Air system infringes two Dainese patents in Europe" and that "Dainese has also recently filed, before a German Court, an additional lawsuit against Alpinestars, seeking compensatory damages for infringement of Dainese’s patents and the halting of commercialisation of the Tech-Air system in Germany".
Dainese go on to say that they have "never received a cease-and-desist letter from Alpinestars and that they, Dainese, have [also] filed a lawsuit against Alpinestars before an Italian court, seeking compensatory damages for infringement of Dainese’s patents, as well as an urgent preliminary injunction for halting the commercialisation of the Tech-Air system in Italy".
Dainese say their patents have been "released by the European Patent Office following a long verification procedure, and are therefore registered and fully valid".
This one will run and run!
www.alpinestars.com
www.dainese.com
