Riding around on Razor scooters is so 2000, with consumers hoping hoverboards will be under their Christmas trees this year — even though they aren't legal to ride around on public streets.
Even if Razor scooters are outdated, the company is attempting to stay relevant by recently starting to sell its own brand of hoverboards, called Hovertrax, that retail for $599.99. Now, it wants to make sure it has control over market.
So, the legal saga regarding these popular electronic skateboards continues.
Razor USA filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in California on Nov. 27 against Swagway, the distributor of hoverboards in the U.S., for copyright infringement.
Razor signed an exclusive licensing agreement from the toy's inventor, Shane Chen, last month, which holds the patent for "a two-wheel, self-balancing vehicle with independently movable foot placement sections."
According to BuzzFeed News, Razor alleges that Swagway, which signed a deal with Target to sell its hoverboards, "infringes ... by making, using, offering for sale, selling, and/or importing ... without license or authority, Swagway, Swagway X1, Swagway smart balancing electric skateboard, and related and similar products."
While these two companies battle it out in court, they aren't the only ones to do so. Chen's company, Inventist, was sued by Segway back in September. Inventist then went on to sue popular hoverboard maker IO Hawk.
Hoverboards, including those sold by Swagway, are manufactured in China and then imported and branded by distributors.
Razor previously sued more than 20 companies that released their own versions of their popular scooters in the early 2000s.
Source: BuzzFeed News
