Malibu wins patent suit against GSA

[talltigeguy]

https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/manuf...T-q0FG6yHDs4c8

[SONIC]

Saw that coming.
Sucks for the owners of GSA
Ive been on both sides of that and its not fun.
Luckily they have their contracts with tige and others that Im sure are bringing in the money to pay the bill which knowing Malibu is probably not small by any means, not to mention the cost of fighting the court battle.

I've considered many times building surf systems, there's a massive markup in it and the market is wide open for a reasonably priced system, but I have not pursued it because of this exact reason. Malibu owns surf technology, no way around it it seems as they have won every case so far that I've seen.

[D&P Powell]

Sucks for the owners of GSA

Sure does. Just met them (Ryan and Krystal) a few weeks ago. Genuinely good people.

[sandm]

that's crazy. not even the same technology/deployment but guessing their patent is far-reaching. smart for them as a business.
wonder if supra/centurion/supreme have paid 'bu off already for trim tabs hanging off the back as surf systems. same concept.

for some reason I recall that back in the day, nautique collected a bunch of cash from the others for a patent on towers. something about the flight control tower being patented and others having to pay a royalty for tower design but it's been a few years ago and memories fade...

in the end when tige/mb prices go up another $500 next year we all know where the monies are going.

[BCRider]

Basically any hinged device hanging off the back of the boat counts under the patent and is in violation.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9260161B2/en

Sanm: You are correct about Nautique having the patent on the original tower. Not sure if it still holds?

[freeheel4life]

Wow. Im with sandm. Nowhere near the same concept or execution but the wording of the patent obviously wins out. Also curious if everyone caved and is paying royalties and didnt say anything....just seems odd as even runabouts with forward drives abd now two pontoon brands entered the surf segment with Lenco made plates. MC and Supra are getting their plates from Lenco as well.

It makes me wonder.....Malibu is still using Lenco for their actuators on Axis. Lenco is owned by Brunswick, who dominates the market and is supplying a lot of other components in Bu/Axis boats(Ancor, Mariner, Blue Sea, Whale, etc). They don't want to bite the hand that feeds???

Seems like they really only want to beef with those that are competing with a big chunk of their market share. A quick "Malibu sues GSA" on the Google machine popped up this 4yo convo

https://www.themalibucrew.com/index....rgence/&page=3

^^funny how midway its almost played out just like that in the comments between bawshogg and skurfer . Went after the big guys, then when MB, Tige/ATX picked up GSA Malibu wants to beef.

Either way eff them in the A. Thank goodness theres language about hinges and actuation or Ronix, Nauticurl, Swellsurf and all the other shaper guys would be hating life.

[scottspray]

Could GSA be considered a brake system? I think Centurion and Supreme still use a tab system. Malibu’s wedge and gate are definitely a brake system. GSA doesn’t look the same as surf gate.
What a crock.

[SONIC]

Malibu didn't really patent their gates, they patented the idea of a system attached to a boat with the intent to create a wave on one side of the boat.
Very very clever. They have 50 claims on their patent basically covering every possible way to make a wave.
GSA is 100% in the wrong IMO Malibu's patent clearly covers their product, theirs has some unique features that were patented, but the whole premise of the way it operates belongs to Malibu.

There's a very common misconception that if you change something by 10% a patent doesn't apply. That's just not the case if you infringe on a primary claim you're toast.

That being said IMO it's also a BS patent by malibu, vertically actuated tabs weren't even thought of yet but they tossed them into the patent literature just in case, along with a bunch of other "gotchas". This is what happens when a boat maker is a public company run by businessmen and lawyers with virtually unlimited money for writing and filing patents.


Nautique also got sued and now pays a royalty, even though NSS is even further from SurfGate than GSA is.

[UNSTUCK]

I know next to nothing about patents, but I have to wonder about any protections GSA might deserve. GSA claims that their system is patented as well. I actually looked for it a few years ago, but couldn't find it, but Malibu's patents are easy to find. So assuming GSA actually does have a patent for their system, and assuming they used a lawyer to write it up, can they not fall back on that lawyer because he should have known better? Or how can the patent office award a patent if it infringes on another one? I have a few ideas I'd like to patent. But knowing that getting a patent awarded to you, but may not mean anything kind of takes the wind from the sails.

[rcoates2]

I'm pretty sure Thomas Jefferson wanted a 2 year limit on Patents. Makes a lot of sense.

[SONIC]

The GSA people have a patent on the tab itself and the way it diverts water to create both lift and yaw at the same time. A good patent and a fair one.
That doesn't protect them from the fact that their implementation of the tab is infringing unfortunately.

The patent office is run by clowns, in my experience they do very minimal research they just read the application and if it sounds good they approve it.

[SONIC]

Patents are only useful if you can afford to enforce them. They can't be enforced effectively for overseas competition anyway so in my eyes they are about useless for small business except if you have something that's really going to make you money quickly.

IMO what this does is make it so that big corporations like Malibu can stifle competition because no one else can really afford the cost of a lawsuit (or more likely multiple lawsuits at the same time)

[cnote]

i think patent exclusivity ends after 10 years. first surfgate system was 2013? so i think the patent rights expire and royalties would stop in a couple of years. i could be totally wrong but that's what i recall.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[SONIC]

unfortunately it's 20 years

[miller]

The Malibu patent expires on July 10, 2032