Briggs & Stratton (BGG, $13.09) Ordered to Pay $28.8 Million in Patent Case Against Toro's (TTC, $55.62) Exmark

Briggs & Stratton has been ordered to pay more than $28.8 million in damages in a patent ruling in favour of Exmark Manufacturing Company Inc., a Nebraska-based subsidiary of The Toro Co.

Exmark first filed a lawsuit against Briggs in May 2010, alleging that some mower decks produced by the latter’s subsidiary Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group LLC had infringed upon Exmark’s mower deck patent. A September 2015 verdict ruled against Briggs, but an appellate court remanded the decision back to the district court for reconsideration in January 2018.

On Dec. 20, the new trial ended with the district court ruling in favor of Exmark again. The court ordered Briggs to pay $14.4 million in compensatory damages, an additional $14.4 million in enhanced damages, plus "re-judgment interest, post-judgment interest and costs to be determined," according to a Briggs filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The cost/impact of the damages would most probably not appear in Brigg’s financial report for the quarter ending December 30, according to Briggs. As for the implication on future financial statements, the company indicated that it might assess the possibility of a successful appeal before making any estimate.

"The company strongly disagrees with the verdict and certain rulings made before and during the new trial and intends to vigorously pursue its rights through post-trial motions and, if necessary, on appeal," as mentioned in Briggs’ filing with the SEC.

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Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.