"Dive computer wars as Uwatec sues Suunto, and divers sue Uwatec"@

[M_B]

http://www.divernet.com/news/stories/vytec231003.shtml

Just to let you know if you don't know already. I'm glad i spotted this article before buying Uwatec comp.

 

[CincyBengalsFan]

That's ashame...Suunto was building these things before uwatec new what SCUBA even was.

 

[Dive Source]

Hmmm....

If I was a suspicious person I might wonder if this is just a stategic move by Uwatec/Johnson outdoors to try and discredit Suunto and draw attention away from the lawsuits against Uwatec by consumers.

If on the other hand Suunto did infringe on their copyright they probably have a case.

Should be interesting.

 

[caveseeker7]

CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...
That's ashame...Suunto was building these things before uwatec new what SCUBA even was.

The Uwatec Aladin AirX was the first. And if you look at the sending units, the Suuntos are dead ringers for the Uwatec. Don't know what patent or other protection Uwatec registered, but those senders look awefully alike.
Compare it to the Cochran units for example, they look and work differently.
(Yet Cochran & Uwatec were at it in the courts, too)

 

[scubasean]

the lawsuit was filed in Germany....

There must be a manufacturing point for sunnto in Germany....right?

No clue as to whether there are other similar patents by Uwatec in other countries. The article only suggests the possibility.

 

[SparkySFD]

Ive know the owner of my LDS for a long time. He told me that the Uwatecs had a big problem with the sending units. They worked great......until your buddies with the same unit swam close and the signals started interfering with each other.

He said the Sunntos didnt have the same problem. So something has to be different. Anyway I will probably never buy an Uwatec product after the scandal of covering up problems that eventually came out and products had to be recalled. When they hurt people to keep up the bottom line, they permanantly kill thier reputation with me.

 

[Arnaud]

scubasean once bubbled...
the lawsuit was filed in Germany....

There must be a manufacturing point for sunnto in Germany....right?

No clue as to whether there are other similar patents by Uwatec in other countries. The article only suggests the possibility.

Uwatec computers are made in Germany, I believe. The company was German before being acquired by SP.

 

[scubasean]

Arnaud once bubbled...


Uwatec computers are made in Germany, I believe. The company was German before being acquired by SP.

You may have misunderstood my premise...

In order for you to sue a company for patent infringement, you must generally sue them where *they* have business operations that infringe your patent granted in that country. So, I presume that Suunto has German-based operations that are alleged to infringe a Uwatec German-granted patent...since Uwatec is suing them there (unless I also misunderstand...).

The business operations could just be a marketing arm, sales force, etc., but I made a guess that Uwatec would rather go after a manufacturing point.

 

[caveseeker7]

Arnaud once bubbled...
Uwatec computers are made in Germany, I believe. The company was German before being acquired by SP.

Uwatec is a Swiss corporation, Suunto is from Finland. I'm sure that, while Scubapro is a US company, they kept Uwatec in Switzerland. Aside form obvious tax advantages, corporate protection goes a long way in CH. As Cochran found out a few years ago.

 

[Arnaud]

The content of my next post will be triple checked!