CBP rules Garmin’s DownVü not admissible in U.S.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection ruled on June 5, 2017 that Garmin’s DownVü products are not admissible into the United States.
This ruling comes on the heels of an Enforcement Initial Determination filed by an International Trade Commission Administrative Law Judge on May 25, 2017, which found that Garmin violated the cease-and-desist orders issued in 2015 regarding the importation and sale of products featuring tilted DownVü scanning sonar technology. Like the EID, CBP has also found that Garmin’s tilted DownVü products infringe Navico’s DownScan Imaging patents. The ruling means that all affected products will be stopped at the U.S. borders.
“We are very pleased that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has ruled in our favor,” said Leif Ottosson, CEO, Navico. “This ruling – independent from the ITC – further reinforces our claims that Garmin has been marketing and selling patent-infringing products.”
Garmin sought the ruling from CBP relating to the DownVü products after Garmin had introduced its new ClearVü sonar technology to the market.
“Like the ITC ruling, this only applies to the combination tilted systems we stopped importing last year. Since then, Garmin introduced ClearVu sonar technology that Navico itself has confirmed does not infringe on the technology being disputed,” said Carly Hysell, PR/media relations manager at Garmin International.
With more than 60,000 employees, CBP is one of the world’s largest law enforcement organizations and is charged with facilitating lawful international travel and trade.
