Hell's Bay Wins "Splash" Contest With Beavertail Skiffs

In the good old days (otherwise known as the days before anyone had a clue how to make the perfect flats skiff), saltwater anglers who were skilled at working fiberglass could “pop a mold” off of their favorite boat or abandoned hull and use it as a framework to build the ultimate fishing craft. If you were around in the seventies or eighties, you may even have fished out of one of custom one-offs, and thanks to the miracle of fiberglass some of them are still catching fish today. Once skiff-building became a business that entailed taking orders and managing profit margins, of course, molds — which can cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce from scratch — became the intellectual property that made full-scale production possible. Just as a fly line company can patent a coating, or a fly reel company will seek patents on improvements to a drag mechanism, boat builders now seek patent protection for the subtle hull configurations that make a boat pole more quietly or shallower, or ride drier or easier.
It is not surprising that a company like Hell’s Bay would get serious about protecting their hull designs, especially after owner Chris Peterson bought the company out of bankruptcy a couple of years back and turned it into a serious business. Hell’s Bay had filed a patent infringement suit in November against Fisher Beavertail Manufacturing (www.beavertailskiffs.com), and yesterday we learned that the suit had been settled, but very obviously in favor of Hell’s Bay. Indeed, in addition to monetary compensation, Beavertail will discontinue their Osprey, B2 and BTX models and destroy the molds.
Read more details in the extended entry.

Hell’s Bay agrees to settlement in its splashing lawsuit against Beavertail Skiffs
Florida boat company takes action against patent and trade dress infringement
TITUSVILLE, Fla., — Since launching its anti-splashing lawsuit five months ago in protecting its distinctive hull designs from being copied, Hell’s Bay has reached an out-of-court settlement with Beavertail Skiffs
Hell’s Bay Holdings, Inc. filed the complaint against Fisher Beavertail Manufacturing this past November alleging Fisher Beavertail had splashed Hell’s Bay’s Waterman models. Though Fisher Beavertail Manufacturing is an Avon, Minnesota, based corporation, the lawsuit alleged Beavertail built, distributed, marketed and sold the copied skiffs in Florida injurious to the Hell’s Bay designed and manufactured boats headquartered in Titusville.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division. Hell’s Bay had asked for a jury trial before a settlement was reached.
Through its Orlando based intellectual property attorneys of Beusse Wolter Sanks Mora, & Maire, P.A., Hell’s Bay brought five counts against Beavertail which included design patent infringement, trade dress infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices and violations of Florida’s anti dilution statute.
A decade ago Hell’s Bay was formed to create a new style of shallow water fishing skiff that incorporated many new design ideas that now give Hell’s Bay a distinctive look. That look has now become the trade dress for a Hell’s Bay skiff.
For the trade dress portion of the lawsuit Hell’s Bay also included photographs of the unique hulls of its high-end performance flats boats for comparison to the hulls it alleged were copied, produced, marketed and sold by Beavertail under its Osprey, B2 and BTX models.
Though the exact terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Chris Peterson, Hell’s Bay’s president, was elated with the results of the outcome which included Hell’s Bay receiving monetary compensation and that the current Beavertail designs would be discontinued and the molds destroyed.
“While no liability was found or admitted in the settlement we feel that the results of the settlement should show the marine industry that marine intellectual property rights can be protected,” said Peterson.
“It can take some companies well over a hundred thousand dollars and up to a year to develop a design, create its tooling, test it, refine it, and do more on-the-water testing to bring it to market,” said Peterson. “But to splash a hull, it can take just days to copy and a minimal amount of money to produce a boat.”
Kevin W. Wimberly, one of Hell’s Bay’s attorneys said, “Hell’s Bay has been diligent in not only obtaining protection for its intellectual property portfolio but also in asserting that protection.
“Vessel hull designs may be protected in several ways, including by obtaining vessel hull registrations with the Copyright Office, obtaining design patents under the Patent Act, and via registered or common law trade dress under the Lanham Act. Despite this apparent overlapping protection, vessel hull designs are often thought to inhabit an intellectual property gray area due to the intricacies of the law and past precedent.
“While the specific strategy used for protecting a business’s intellectual property portfolio may vary, market conditions and the ever-present threat of shortcut-seeking market entrants make the need for some form of protection plan vitally important.”
Peterson further explained, “One key portion of our lawsuit was the trade dress infringement. Registered or not, trade dress is a protectable right. It’s the unique, distinctive design and look of a product,” said Peterson who gave as an example competitive soft drink bottlers trying to use the styling of the famous green Coca Cola bottle.
“We are known, especially among owners of shallow water boats, for the distinctive look of our boats which include the curvature of the bow hull along with the bold splash chine.
“Our boat designs are covered by design patents and our distinctive trade dress. We feel that other manufacturers have copied our designs and we will be evaluating those infringements as we decide to go after other builders who we feel copied us,” Peterson concluded.
Hell’s Bay Marine, which has eight models of shallow-water skiffs in the 14′ to 18′ range, is located in Titusville, Fla., and its web site is hellsbayboatworks.com. Peterson can be contacted at 321-383-8223 or via e-mail to [email protected].
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Pete Johnson, Johnson Communications, Inc.
Scottsdale, Arizona
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: 480-951-3654