Canadian court upholds ruling in landing gear fight

Avatar for Skies MagazineBy Skies Magazine | October 2, 2013

Estimated reading time 3 minutes, 11 seconds.


In the latest development in ongoing patent infringement litigation between Bell Helicopter and Eurocopter, the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada has upheld a January 2012 ruling that found Bell Helicopter liable for punitive damages for infringing a Eurocopter patent for helicopter landing gear.
The case is one of several that Eurocopter has brought against Bell in Canada, the United States and Europe, claiming that Bell intentionally copied the “Moustache” landing gear on Eurocopter EC120 and EC130 helicopters when it designed the landing gear for the Bell 429.
The results of this litigation have been mixed. In Canada, a trial judge ruled on Jan. 30, 2012, that the sleigh-type “Legacy” landing gear used by Bell during the development of the 429 helicopter did indeed infringe Eurocopter’s Moustache landing gear patent, and that Eurocopter was entitled to punitive damages for Bell’s “bad faith and egregious conduct.”
However, the ruling also found that the “Production” landing gear on current-production Bell 429s does not infringe Eurocopter’s patent. Later in 2012, a French court likewise found that Eurocopter’s Moustache landing gear patent is not infringed by the Bell 429’s Production landing gear design.
Bell appealed the Canadian ruling on several grounds, arguing that the trial judge erred in his findings that the Legacy landing gear violated Eurocopter’s patent, and that Eurocopter was entitled to punitive damages. Eurocopter cross-appealed, continuing to claim that the Bell 429’s Production landing gear is functionally equivalent to the Legacy gear, which it describes as a “slavish copy” of the sleigh-style Moustache gear.
In a lengthy Sept. 24 judgment, the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada dismissed both Bell’s appeal and Eurocopter’s cross-appeal, upholding the original ruling. Regarding punitive damages, the appeals court agreed that Bell’s conduct in the design and promotion of its Legacy landing gear represented a sufficiently “marked departure from ordinary standards of decent behaviour” to justify an award to Eurocopter. Eurocopter will now have the opportunity to seek a specific amount of punitive damages in further court proceedings (it previously requested an award of $25 million).
Bell, for its part, is focusing on the fact that the court upheld the legitimacy of the 429’s Production landing gear. “We will continue to deliver the Bell 429 without interruption,” the company said in a statement to Canadian Skies. “This court ruling is good news for Bell Helicopter and our customers who are enjoying all of the value that the Bell 429 delivers.”

Notice a spelling mistake or typo?

Click on the button below to send an email to our team and we will get to it as soon as possible.

Report an error or typo

Have a story idea you would like to suggest?

Click on the button below to send an email to our team and we will get to it as soon as possible.

Suggest a story

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *