LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge has overturned a $21 million jury award to an inventor who accused Kawasaki of stealing his invention of the jet ski, Kawasaki said Monday.
U.S. Federal District Judge John Davies ruled on Aug. 30 that the July 9 award to Clayton Jacobson was 'unsubstantiated' by the evidence presented and ordered a new trial, company spokesman Donald Koprowski said.
Koprowski said the company did not become aware of Davies' ruling until last week.
Jacobson, of Incline Village, Nev., had been awarded $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $13.5 million in punitive damages in his suit against Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. and Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. U.S.A.
Jacobson sued the companies for libel and slander, but Davies said in his ruling that 'the evidence of libel and slander of title was scanty and undeveloped.'
Jacobson had also made claims against Kawasaki for fraud, antitrust and breach of contract.
Jacobson was not immediately available for comment.
Jacobson claimed Kawasaki had improperly obtained patents on his technology in Japan, named its own employees as the inventors of the jet ski and claimed to the 'the inventor of the jet ski' in its advertising.
Jacobson has claimed that he conceived the idea of the jet ski in the early 1960s. The machine, which resembles a snowmobile and is steered by handlebars, evolved into its current form about two decades ago.
Kawasaki said Monday Jacobson came to Kawasaki in 1971 with a concept for a powered water ski. Kawasaki said it subsequently performed extensive research and development in order to produce a commercial product acceptable to be distributed and sold to the public.
'Kawasaki was required to develop a previously non-existent market for its Jet Ski personal watercraft beginning in 1975,' the company said. 'Because of Kawasaki's marketing and distribution efforts, an entire new industry was created for personal watercraft.'
