Fox and SRAM end costly chainring and axle legal feuds

Fox and SRAM have kicked off the New Year with the settling of long-running legal quarrels dating back as far as 2015 and relating to patent disputes.

The high profile saga drew to a close with both parties registering documents in Colorado and Illinois last week, each dropping their claims and counter claims. Astonishingly, after the six years of dispute, each side will now cover their own costs and legal team fees.

According to the publicly available financials from Fox, the cost of legal fees in 2020 alone was $1.96 million, down from $4.4 million in 2019 and a further $2.1 million a year prior. The latest third quarter statement added a final $900,000.

No admission of liability was made in the filings, suggesting that for the two companies the cost had become to great to continue fighting. The future relationship will now see Fox granted a non-exclusive licence to make and sell products utilising SRAM’s chainring related patents with royalty fees paid in return. In the other direction, Fox will offer a non-exclusive royalty-free licence to produce products covered by its axle patents.

The story began with SRAM making claim against Fox-owned RaceFace (acquired the year prior in 2014) in relation to two chainring patents alleged to have been breached. RaceFace took the issue to court, stating that it did not recognise the patents’ validity, though the X-Sync technology in question had been licensed to other third-party labels.

What US trade media BR&IN speculates may have moved the needle on a resolution is the U.S. patent and Trademark Office board siding with Fox in the spring of 2021 on this particular patent challenge.

This claim was followed in 2016 by a separate piece of litigation filed in 2016 from Fox against SRAM, the parent group to suspension maker RockShox, alleging infringements on suspension and axle patents.