Columbia Sportswear Company issued the following statement regarding the jury verdict in its patent infringement lawsuit against Seirus Innovative Accessories:
On September 29, a jury in the federal district court in San Diego awarded damages to Columbia Sportswear in the amount of $3.018 million for Seirus’s infringement of one of Columbia’s U.S. design patents in its portfolio of patents concerning its Omni-Heat Reflective technology. The amount awarded represents Seirus’s total profits from the sale of its infringing HeatWave products. Columbia is also entitled to prejudgment interest and to seek the profits that retailers earned through their sales of the Seirus infringing products.
“We are very pleased that Seirus has been held accountable for infringing our design patent,” said Peter Bragdon, Columbia’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “Seirus continued to promote and sell its infringing HeatWave products even after Judge Hernandez ruled in August 2016 that the products infringed Columbia’s U.S. design patent, unfairly profiting from Columbia’s innovations. We believe all our innovative products provide superior performance and we will continue to aggressively pursue infringing products.”
The jury also found that two claims of one of Columbia’s U.S. Omni-Heat utility patents are invalid. “We continue to maintain numerous patents around the globe related to our Omni-Heat designs and technology, and will seek to overturn the jury’s partial invalidation of one of our U.S. Omni-Heat patents,” said Bragdon.
The court rulings are subject to appeal.
Columbia was represented in the litigation by the law firm of Schwabe Williamson and Wyatt.
