The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington decided three separate motions on Wednesday, ruling in favor of ICON and against Nautilus Group on all three motions.
In its ruling, the Court sided with ICON in all matters before it, denying Nautilus request for an injunction against ICON in continuing to sell the CROSSBOW and further ruling the CROSSBOW did not infringe Nautilus patents.
The ruling is the culmination of several months of legal wrangling between ICON Health & Fitness and the Nautilus Group, the Vancouver, Washington maker of Bowflex.
“We respect others patent rights. When we set out to develop the CROSSBOW, we were careful to create an innovative, distinct product that would not infringe the Bowflex patents,” said Scott Watterson, ICON’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “As a consumer-centric company, we strive to develop better products that are more affordable to the consumer, based on our proprietary design. We believe we accomplished that with the CROSSBOW. We are pleased with the Court’s ruling and have always been confident in our position.”
Still other disputes exist between ICON and Nautilus Group. In August of 2002 FreeMotion Fitness, an ICON subsidiary, filed suit against the Nautilus Group in the United States District Court for the District of Utah alleging infringement of one of ICON’s patents on FreeMotion’s innovative cable cross technology and other questionable trade practices. That action is still pending.
