Garmin sued by Pearl Izumi
Slipstream Sports and Team Garmin are being sued by Pearl Izumi over their winged time-trial suits.
Both parties claim the suits as their own intellectual property. Pearl Izumi has demanded the return of 12 suits which they manufactured, while Slipstream is claiming that they actually did the majority of the development work on
the suits.
Pearl Izumi is a Colorado-based clothing company which had sponsored the Garmin-Transitions ProTour team, owned by Slipstream Sports, until June 2010, when rival company Castelli became the team’s clothing sponsor.
Now, the American company is demanding the return of all information relating to the design of the suits and is claiming damages for the theft of intellectual property.
“Slipstream Sports developed and tested the wing suit technology,” read a statement released by the defendant on Thursday, 25 November. “Slipstream Sports put hundreds of hours of testing into this technology independent of Pearl
Izumi.
“While we regret that Pearl have pursued this action, the fact is that Slipstream spent years developing this technology. However, we remain grateful for their sponsorship and will continue to represent them through the end of our
agreement.”
As reported by Colorado-based news website DailyCamera.com, the clothing company requested the return of the 12 suits in July, but the suits have not been returned. The announcement of Castelli as the new clothing sponsor
prompted the lawsuit.
“We've created a joint research and development program working with Robby Ketchell, the team’s sport science director, and we've outlined an innovation agenda focused on making the athletes as fast as possible in every racing condition,”
said Andrea Peron of Castelli.
Ketchell has also been named in the lawsuit. Geoff s******r, marketing director of Pearl Izumi, declined to comment.
Tags: