Garmin loses Lawsuit

Found this pretty interesting. http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2015/07/johnson-outdoors-wins-ruling-patent-lawsuit/

oops...I just bought a new Garmin,..Side-Vu is excellent.

strange, I saw article where they won.

http://www.tradeonlytoday.com/2015/07/garmin-wins-ruling-navico-patent-lawsuit/

Ok, guess two parts to lawsuit.

Garmin won for down scan, but lost for side scan.

That's why lowrance call it structure scan? And it is external?

From what I read Lowrance is paying Humminbird a small percentage after there Lawsuit a few years back... Not sure if that's true, Anyone know for sure.

Two completely different suits. Garmin won in the suit Navico (Lowrance) brought, but lost in a suit that Johnson Outdoors (Humminbird) brought.

After buying the garmins and running them in place of the birds I can tell you that Humminbird is nowhere near "the gold standard" in graphs...... Sometimes you play second fiddle and Humminbird is in that spot now.

HB has been 2nd fiddle to Lowrance for years now. I haven't tried the Garmin units though. They get great reviews, so I'd like to check them out. I might when my bow unit finally bites the dust.

I have a Humminbird and a Garmin........I prefer the Garmin

Had a bird 998c, now running 2 garmin 70s with sidevu/downvu. I'll take the garmins any day!

I see the sore loser files the lawsuit, Garmin's must be nice.

Garmin pulled a nice knockoff with the money they saved by not doing their own R&D. Bird owns the patents and has to defend them. Simple case of technology rip-off.

Yep. Patents are there for a reason. Initially they were to encourage R&D by ensuring a company could recoup that plus sell and profit. This isn't China where they clone everything.

funny, but where were you guys when we talk about Z-man and chatterbaits.

Patents inhibit innovation, start up companies, and progression. True free markets protect complete cloning as you say, but were not meant to exclude competition from the market place. Our patent system ensures prices remain high and protects industry oligarchies. The best example is z-man chatterbaits.

So what does all of this mean?

None of us will know unless the settlement is disclosed to the public.

Nothing. As Johnson Outdoors[Humminbird] stated the ruling is under review by the ITC. In any case it will be in appeals courts for years and then an out of court settlement will be reached.

Pretty much garmin will be paying a percentage to HB just like lowrence already is but its a shame garmin beat HB with there own idea I would be a sore loser as well.

You wouldn't be in business very long giving away your patents.

Blade baits suck patent or no patent. If someone has a patent and does not defend it they don't really have a patent. There will always be someone who knocks off your product and undercuts your price. The fishing industry is loaded with them.

in all honesty the navy had all this technology years ago so where did hb get theirs

^^^ touché ^^^