An administrative panel has found that a pair of Peloton Interactive patents shouldn’t have been issued, giving what Chattanooga-based rival Echelon Fitness Multimedia termed “a big win.”
“We’ve spent a lot of money fighting these guys,” said Lou Lentine, chairman and chief executive of fitness company Echelon.
Lentine, in a telephone interview on Friday, said that legal action between the two companies is continuing related to other patent infringement cases, which Echelon also denies.
Peloton, which makes connected fitness bikes and treadmills, in 2019 sued Echelon Fitness in federal court in Delaware, alleging patent and trade infringement, false advertising and unfair business practices. The suit alleged that Echelon appropriated Peloton’s intellectual property and flooded the market with cheap, copycat products.
But Lentine said then that there was no legitimacy to the lawsuit, and Echelon later filed a counterclaim against Peloton. Lentine said Peloton’s suit was “an example of big business trying to intimidate a strong but young competitor.”