# Not good news for Cervelo



## roubaix_sj (Nov 9, 2010)

http://www.bike-eu.com/news/4611/tridynamic-sentenced-to-recall-patent-infringing-cervlo-frames.html?nb=bike&editie=16%20november%202010&link=Tridynamic%20Sentenced%20to%20Recall%20Patent%20Infringing%20Cerv%E9lo%20Frames&WT.mc_id=mail_bike_16%20november%202010

LINDENBERG, Germany - The European Patent Office has confirmed the patent infringement of the Cervélo RS, R3 and R3 SL framesets as well as complete bikes as claimed by Canyon Bicycles. This confirmation follows on the verdict of the German district court of Duesseldorf last September in the case of Canyon Bicycles GmbH against the former Cervélo distributor Tridynamic GmbH.

Today, in a letter to German IBD’s, Tridynamic announces: “The recall of all frames and wheels series Cervélo RS, R3 and R3 SL which were put on the market since January 9th 2008.” The IBD’s are asked to review their stock and inform Tridynamic in order to arrange transportation.

The German district court also convicted Tridynamic to inform Canyon on the exact deliveries and deals, broken down by delivery quantities, times and prices, including the model names and the name and addresses as well as the advertising campaigns broken down by advertising, circulation, circulation period and area.

As the recall only refers to the older R-models the number of bikes in stock at the IDBS will be limited. The new 2011 R-models are not affected. However this patent infringement could put a heavy burden on the financial position of Cervélo and/or Tridynamic.

“We seriously regret that we have bought apparently infringing goods from Cervélo and sold them to our customers”, says Peter Seyberth GM of Tridynamic. “Particularly unpleasant for us is that we have contributed to these potential patent infringement, because we supplied two frames of Canyon on request by Cervélo and sent them to Canada in 2005.”


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## mr_132 (Apr 26, 2009)

http://www.cervelo.com/en_us/news-blog/article/cervelo-clarification/2611/

An article in today's Bike Europe concerning an ongoing patent dispute of Canyon GmbH against Cervélo Cycles Inc. and TriDynamic contains some glaring errors that demand clarification.

Contrary to the statements in the article, the main hearing with the European Patent Office has not even occurred yet. It will be held on 24 November. There are also other actions available to Cervélo in trying to correct the issuance of the patent. When the patent is ultimately withdrawn or invalidated there will no longer be a basis for a court decision against Cervélo and TriDynamic.

There are a number of other issues which we feel are important to address:

Cervélo discontinued doing business with Peter Seyberth and TriDynamic in August of 2009 as a result of what we believed were serious irregularities in his business practices. Cervélo presently has a legal action against TriDynamic and Peter Seyberth for funds which are believed to have been withheld while he was the Cervélo Distributor. It may be appropriate to see some of TriDynamic's statements regarding Cervélo and its products in this light.

As most of you are aware Cervélo Cycles Inc. and TriDynamic are in an ongoing patent dispute with Canyon GmbH. Canyon had been granted a patent in Germany for a particular seat tube shape and has taken legal action against Cervélo and TriDynamic in the German court for patent infringement. The law suit deals with the older R-models (R3, RS and R3SL frames). The completely new 2011 R-models with the BBrightTM innovation are not affected.

Cervélo has responded by defending in the German court and more importantly, filing an opposition to the patent with the European Patent Office.

Cervélo believes very strongly that the patent should be invalid due to prior use and obviousness. It is a combination of features which is believed to be known publicly for many years before the patent application and more recently in very common use by many manufacturers. 

In fact, although the new Cervélo R-models with BBrightTM do not use this combination of features, many other frames on the market do appear to and thus would also be at risk.

Initially Cervélo included TriDynamic in the defence in the German court, but public statements by Peter Seyberth were disruptive and unnecessary, and have made a common defence difficult. As a result of this untenable relationship, the German law firm withdrew their representation of TriDynamic after the German lower court decision in September and advised him immediately.

As a result of Cervélo's appeal of the court decision, the requirements of the decision were not automatically enforceable against Cervélo. Canyon has exercised its right to enforce part of the decision in demanding certain information from Cervélo.

TriDynamic did not appeal the court decision and therefore the court order is immediately enforceable against them. This requires both the information about orders and sales and the request to dealers to return frames they still have in stock (the recall). That only applies to R3, RS and R3SL frames sold by TriDynamic since 1 September, 2008. It is a request to dealers. Dealers were not named in the action, there is no court order against them and they are not obliged to comply with the request.

Currently this issue only applies to Germany, where the patent was issued, and of course Cervélo strives to minimize the issue for its dealers. Regardless of the outcome, this issue is not expected to have a material financial impact on Cervélo.


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## JoWu (Feb 9, 2008)

From what I can read on a German forum, the Canyon Bicycle patent has been validated by the European Patent Bureau, meaning that the patent infringement would apply to all of the countries in the European Union. Not sure if there are any further news since November 2010?


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