If you’ve been paying attention to social media, you’ll realize that there are more photos and videos of people riding “hoverboards”. These aren’t technically hoverboards but yet they are called that anyway. Basically they are a set of wheels and a platform that users stand on to move forwards, backwards, or spin around.
They’re also made by a company called Inventist. However it seems that Segway, one of the original personal transportation device makers, isn’t too happy with Inventist and have since filed a lawsuit against the company and their Hovertrax device. Segway alleges that Inventist had willfully violated some of Segway’s existing patents.
To that end, Segway is now demand damages, attorney fees, along with a permanent injunction against Inventist from selling their Hovertrax device. According to one of the patents, it describes a system particularly to, “balancing vehicles and methods for transporting individuals over ground having a surface that may be irregular.”
However according to The Hollywood Reporter, they claim that Inventist themselves have their own patent that supposedly covers the control method of the Hovertrax. It is unclear as to who might be at fault here, but what do you guys think? Is Segway trying to bring attention to themselves given the revival of such gadgets? Or did Inventist really violate the company’s patents?
Filed in . Read more about Hoverboard, Legal and Segway.