BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Specialized Bicycle founder and chairman Mike Sinyard announced today that Taiwanese saddle manufacturer Viscount Industries Co. Ltd has agreed to stop making products which infringe on the Specialized Body Geometry patents.
Viscount will have to go down the same road as Velo Ent. Co. Ltd., which now licenses Body Geometry patents from Specialized.
And Sella Italia has also discontinued production of saddles that conflicted with Specialized’s intellectual property rights.
"By creating the only saddle technology that is clinically proven to be
medically effective, Specialized has significantly changed the face of modern
saddle design," said Sinyard.
"Now our colleagues at Viscount, Velo, and Sella Italia have acknowledged the legitimacy of our patents, and we can move forward with continued product development and delivery to our customers."
Specialized is said to be in touch with other Body Geometry copiers and is hopeful the patent infringing can be stopped worldwide.
The Body Geometry concept was developed by ergonomics specialist Dr Roger Minkow in response to reports of cycling-induced penile numbness and impotence aired in publications and television reports in the US and Europe, and which caused ‘cycling is bad for you’ scares.
Dr Minkow claims that clinical studies conducted by Dr. Robert Kessler, Professor of Urology at Stanford University, and Dr. Anders Anglesen, Professor of Urology at the
University of Trondheim in Norway, have demonstrated the effectiveness of Body
Geometry saddle technology.
Body Geometry saddle technology is protected by 35 utility and design patents in the US and nine countries worldwide.
Richard Hemington, MD of Specialized UK, said: "[Body Geometry] is the only medically proven saddle amongst all the look-a-likes out there. Now we can put a stop to [the copying]."
