Operations

Court orders Ridge Corp. to halt sales of tail device

Aug. 28, 2015

A U.S. District Court judge issued an injunction against Ridge Corp.

A U.S. District Court judge has issued an injunction against Ridge Corp., ordering the company to “cease all manufacture, use, sales, offers for sale or importation of “Green Tail” devices or any other products that infringe United States Patent Nos. 8,360,510, 8,360,509, or 8,272,680.”The patents are held by ATDynamics, a Stemco company. ATDynamics filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction against Ridge in March of this year, claiming Ridge’s Green Tail device infringed on patents for ATDynamics’ TrailerTail aerodynamic device.According to Stemco, Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, found that ATDynamics was “likely to succeed” on its patent infringement lawsuit against Ridge over the competing products. The injunction will stop “Ridge’s infringement of ATDynamics’ patents while the patent infringement lawsuit is ongoing,” Stemco said. ATDynamics has also asked the court for monetary damages and to make the injunction against Ridge permanent at the conclusion of the lawsuit.The full court ruling can be downloaded here.In the court document, ATDynamics claims that it approached Ridge in May 2013 about supplying thermoplastic lining materials for the TrailerTail. Ridge, the document states, told ATDynamics that it was planning to build its own tail product, which it had been working on since its first prototype in June 2010. “The parties executed a nondisclosure agreement in which Ridge agreed not to share Advanced Transit’s information ‘with any manufacturer that is a competitor’ of Advanced Transit’s (ATDynamics). Advanced Transit sent Ridge its specifications for materials, but Ridge did not make a supply proposal. Ridgestresses that while Advanced Transit sent specifications for materials that would be used for manufacturing panels for the TrailerTail, Ridge did not request, and Advanced Transit did not send, any additional specifications or documentation regarding the manufacture, use, installation, or operation of the TrailerTail,” the document states.By late 2013, Ridge was promoting a tail device, ATDynamics said, at a price about a third of ATDynamic’s price point. The lawsuit was filed on March 13, 2015, after ATDynamics learned Ridge’s product had qualified as an EPA SmartWay Verified Trailer Aerodynamic Device, leading the company to believe that the official launch of the Green Tail was imminent.