Ninebot Wins New Trial on Lost-Profits Award in Solowheel Case

Ninebot Ltd. was granted a new trial on lost profits Friday after a federal appeals court ruled the trial judge used the wrong legal standard to bar the Chinese electronics maker’s evidence of alternative designs for self-balancing electric unicycles.

Ninebot should have been permitted to present evidence that it could have marketed noninfringing alternatives to Inventist Inc.’s patented Solowheel, Judge Timothy B. Dyk wrote for a three-judge panel in an opinion issued in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The court left intact the district judge’s earlier finding that Ninebot’s second-generation models don’t infringe US Patent No. 8,807,250 ...