Canadian Federal Court Outlaws Sales Of AC Procross Sleds in Canada

[20/80]

No doubt it is bad news, not just for the Cat faithful, but maybe for all of us as well. How many spring order sleds have they built for Canadian customers, and what percentage of their annual sales are north of the border? Hopefully Canada is a small percentage of Cat's bottom line, because if Cat can't weather the financial storm of lost Canadian sales, and goes under, Yamaha will find itself without a manufacturer for its sleds.

Maybe they will just paint all those Cats blue and sell them as Yamahas!

This might be the turning point for Yamaha, they are saying the lawsuit won't affect the Yamaha sleds sales in Canada but its that chassis that BRP had their patent infringed on, but I think Yamaha signed the deal for the Cat chassis in 2014 before BRP filed a claim in the courts on the patent infringement, so this maybe the reason Yamaha can sell their sleds in Canada and not be penalized, not sure if the Cat faithful would throw a leg over a blue painted Yamaha and be fooled into thinking there on a CAT.

 

[whitedust1]

Time for Textron to make some decisions. BRP shutdown Evinrude/Johnson claiming Covid was at fault be we all know that was BS the outboard market wants 4s not 2s. So now Textron is at a crossroads to invest in tooling for a new Chassis or eliminate themselves from the Canadian market. Other option is to sell the snow division to Yamaha as is but Yamaha hasn’t been motivated to spend the money to acquire AC. Definitely a tuff position for Textron and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[20/80]

I believe Textron has already made a decision, we just have not seen the results yet, my take is they either have to co share and develop a all new version of the pro cross or Cat sleds division is for sale, and your not going to see Yamaha buy Cat, there maybe other players lurking, just saying.

 

[whitedust1]

I believe Textron has already made a decision, we just have not seen the results yet, my take is they either have to co share and develop a all new version of the pro cross or Cat sleds division is for sale, and your not going to see Yamaha buy Cat, there maybe other players lurking, just saying.

Highly doubt there are other interested parties it’s sell to Yamaha or develop a new chassis. Maybe they can tweak pro cross to new design or just pay BRP a licensing fee and continue pro cross as is.

 

[TPAY243]

Really you guys are way over thinking this, Ski Doo' s patent on this chassis expires in one year. The Artic Cats that were ordered for 2021 will be delivered because they were placed before this stupid law suit went through. So the only way this will affect Cat sales will be 2021 winter sales that were not spring ordered. Any loyal Cat, Yamaha, or Polaris guys will not buy a Ski Doo and if they do who really cares.

 

[yamadoo]

You think Cat loyal will go to the company that isn't allowing them to drive the brand they prefer....?

I think snowmobilers primary thoughts are they want the sled they want to RIDE.

I Know I gave little thought to the manufacturer patents and legal squabbles prior to deciding on purchase besides quality and wether they will be there for me in the future.
Heck for a lot of us if we have gear and Bumper/trailer stickers we hate to go agains that. LOL

 

[Mototown]

Went to pay my dealer today for the sled . He's had 3 guys phone him this week willing to pay full pop for srx s ... Yamaha has no extra sleds available. You would think if there was a no sales for Arctic cat in Canada , they would make another run of srx s or make extras if they new this for the last couple months this was happening.

 

[ClutchMaster]

That would make sense tho.

 

[Kevin]

So the new sleds that have been delivered to Canadian dealers are not allowed to be returned to the USA
Customers that already have their new sleds at home and in their names must be returned to the dealer
All will be scrapped!!!!!!!!!!!
So I was told yesterday

 

[Handy]

That would just be stupid.

 

[whitedust1]

So the new sleds that have been delivered to Canadian dealers are not allowed to be returned to the USA
Customers that already have their new sleds at home and in their names must be returned to the dealer
All will be scrapped!!!!!!!!!!!
So I was told yesterday

Yeah that will never happen. Lol Sled purchased title passed on try prying from owners cold dead hands.

 

[Wannaviper]

I have not done a detailed read or analysis of the Canadian decision, but the Readers Digest version is that AC appealed the permanent injunction against Canadian sales issued by the court in June. The effect of the injunction is only on the 2021 models because the BRP patent will expire next year, allowing AC to continue to produce and sell its sleds in Canada. The original injunction did not cover sleds already owned and, or in possession of, the dealers at the time of the judgment, or sleds that had been fully paid for by their customers. So, if you pre-ordered and paid in full, you would still get your sled, or if your sled got to the dealer before the effective date of the injunction, you could still complete the sale and get your sled. What the most recent decision does is to conclude that putting a deposit on your spring order sled was not a "completed sale" for purposes of the injunction. So, if a Canadian customer put money down on the sled for Spring order, but did not pay in full prior to the effective date of the injunction (which I understand would have been 20 days after June 15th), and if their sled had not arrived at the dealership by that date, they are out of luck, and presumably get their deposit back. It sounds like the Canadian AC dealers may have missed the boat on this because what they needed to do was to contact their spring order customers and get a completed sale prior to the effective date of the injunction.

So, in terms of the economic impact on AC, they will lose all the spring order sales that had not been delivered to dealers, or paid for in full, by the effective date of the injunction. Presumably those sleds that still have to roll off the assembly line will be available for US consumers to purchase, and hopefully AC will have some nice economic incentives to make that happen. If AC could get Yamaha to take more sleds, presumably they could just produce more blue sleds and sell their unsold units that way. The Canadian court declined to accept AC's representation that the injunction would cause irreparable harm to AC. Let's hope the court was right!

 

[SledFreak]

Time for Textron to make some decisions. BRP shutdown Evinrude/Johnson claiming Covid was at fault be we all know that was BS the outboard market wants 4s not 2s. So now Textron is at a crossroads to invest in tooling for a new Chassis or eliminate themselves from the Canadian market. Other option is to sell the snow division to Yamaha as is but Yamaha hasn’t been motivated to spend the money to acquire AC. Definitely a tuff position for Textron and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The snow division is never going to sell to Yamaha. Yamaha had their chance and they declined.

 

[SledFreak]

So the new sleds that have been delivered to Canadian dealers are not allowed to be returned to the USA
Customers that already have their new sleds at home and in their names must be returned to the dealer
All will be scrapped!!!!!!!!!!!
So I was told yesterday

This is so dumb... I would not even posted it!!

 

[SledFreak]

I have not done a detailed read or analysis of the Canadian decision, but the Readers Digest version is that AC appealed the permanent injunction against Canadian sales issued by the court in June. The effect of the injunction is only on the 2021 models because the BRP patent will expire next year, allowing AC to continue to produce and sell its sleds in Canada. The original injunction did not cover sleds already owned and, or in possession of, the dealers at the time of the judgment, or sleds that had been fully paid for by their customers. So, if you pre-ordered and paid in full, you would still get your sled, or if your sled got to the dealer before the effective date of the injunction, you could still complete the sale and get your sled. What the most recent decision does is to conclude that putting a deposit on your spring order sled was not a "completed sale" for purposes of the injunction. So, if a Canadian customer put money down on the sled for Spring order, but did not pay in full prior to the effective date of the injunction (which I understand would have been 20 days after June 15th), and if their sled had not arrived at the dealership by that date, they are out of luck, and presumably get their deposit back. It sounds like the Canadian AC dealers may have missed the boat on this because what they needed to do was to contact their spring order customers and get a completed sale prior to the effective date of the injunction.

So, in terms of the economic impact on AC, they will lose all the spring order sales that had not been delivered to dealers, or paid for in full, by the effective date of the injunction. Presumably those sleds that still have to roll off the assembly line will be available for US consumers to purchase, and hopefully AC will have some nice economic incentives to make that happen. If AC could get Yamaha to take more sleds, presumably they could just produce more blue sleds and sell their unsold units that way. The Canadian court declined to accept AC's representation that the injunction would cause irreparable harm to AC. Let's hope the court was right!

I believe AC is still fighting this in court as their has been no decision or communication yet according to my dealer. They have still have time to fight this as the ride able snow isn't going to fly until late Nov/Dec... and thats early.. I can remember getting my snow check 2003 REV 800, Dec 15th. I say people should be patient.. For all the Turbo sleds, Yamaha could take some of those and sell them off, if they even made them yet..