Smith & Koroyd Sue Burton for using WaveCel in headphones

Smith and Koroyd jointly filed an intellectual property lawsuit against Burton for the use of Wavecel in its products.

Wavecel is a spin and impact protection insert developed by Bontrager and first released in March 2019. Burton, a company specializing in snowboarding equipment, has announced that it will also use this technology in its new line. of Anon helmets earlier this year. Koroyd is also a protective insert, but instead of rubber waves it uses extruded tubing to absorb impact.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah and accuses Burton of infringing U.S. Patent No. 10,736,373 by importing and selling Anon helmets in the United States. A separate legal action is also filed by Koroyd in Germany against Burton, also based on intellectual property infringement. The patent that Burton claims to have infringed concerns a “Helmet with shock absorbing inserts“, filed on August 13, 2013. It is not known exactly where the patent was infringed at this time.

According to A press release, Burton was asked to respect the patent rights of Smith and Koroyd before launching its Anon products. However, after Burton decided to continue with the launch, Smith and Kororyd took legal action against him.

This is the second Wavecel-related lawsuit we have reported this year after a New York man filed a lawsuit against Bontrager’s security claims in January. Bontrager declined to comment and Burton has been approached for comment.