In an embarrassing incident, a Chinese hoverboard-maker’s stand the Consumer Electronics Show was raided by US marshals over a patent dispute. Future Motion Inc., maker of a device called OneWheel, on Tuesday filed a patent infringement suit against Changzhou First International Trade Co. in federal court in Las Vegas. The company won an emergency temporary restraining order, leading the US Marshals Service on Thursday to seize merchandise Changzhou was displaying at its CES booth. Future Motion’s Onewheel skateboard is the brainchild of Kyle Doerksen, a designer who had previously worked on electric bicycles. Doerksen began the process of patenting aspects of the Onewheel several years ago. In August, Future Motion received a patent for the underlying technology. Earlier this week, it got a second one for the device’s design. This patent prohibits competitors from making something that an ordinary observer might confuse with the Onewheel.
In December, a letter was sent to Changzhou First International Trade demanding that it stop selling the products. They were contacted again the day before the show floor opened, by approaching the booth directly, but got nowhere. By 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Onewheel filed a request with a judge to stop the Trotters from being displayed on the show floor.
sources: bloomberg.com; money.cnn.com; digital.asiaone.com