Indiana Intellectual Property Law News
Evansville, Indiana –The Plaintiff, Lund Motion Products, Inc. (“Lund”) d/b/a AMP Research (“AMP”), filed suit against Defendant Meyer Distributing, Inc. a/k/a Meyer Truck Equipment (“Meyer”) for Patent Infringement.
According to the complaint, AMP is a research and manufacturing company that specializes in the design, development, and engineering of aftermarket vehicle parts. AMP developed and sold its PowerStep™ line of products that feature electric automatic vehicle steps that deploy when the vehicle doors are open and retract when the doors close. AMP developed a “plug-and-play” technology that allows the retractable step system to communicate directly with the vehicle’s existing computer system.
Lund acquired all assets of AMP in 2013 and continued development, manufacturing and sales of the PowerStep™ products in the US. They own multiple utility patents, including those at issue in this case, U.S. Patent Nos. US9272667, US9527449, US9511717, and US11198395 (collectively, “Asserted Patents”).
The complaint alleges that a Chinese manufacturing firm operating out of Wuhu, Anhui has been manufacturing retractable vehicle steps that infringe on Lund’s asserted patents and selling them globally, including to distributors in the United States. One of those distributors, Southern Truck, LLC, a manufacturer and distributor of aftermarket automotive parts, imports the infringing product and rebrands them as Southern Truck Power Step Boards and then resells them to US based national automotive part distributors.
Meyer is a family owned truck equipment supplier that began in 1937. According to their website, their single focus is to help their customers’ trucks work for them. They offer a large selection of truck bodies and truck equipment from their locations in Evansville, Jasper, and Indianapolis, Indiana. The complaint further alleges that despite Meyer contracting with Lund for distribution of the PowerStep™ products they also sell the infringing product Southern Truck Power Step Boards. This purportedly infringes upon the asserted patents through the manufacture, use, offering for sale, and/or selling within the United States in violation of 35 U.S.C. § 271(a).
Plaintiff is requesting a judgment that the Defendants willfully infringed upon Plaintiff’s Patents, injunctions, damages, disgorged profits, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, attorneys’ fees, and the costs and expenses of the suit.
The case was assigned to Judge Richard L. Young and Magistrate Matthew P. Brookman in the Evansville Division of the Southern District of Indiana assigned Case No. 3:22-cv-00171-RLY-MPB.