Patent dispute may slow Dreamliner deliveries
A U.S. trade agency will consider a claim that Rolls-Royce Group Plc is violating a patent owned by United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney jet-engine unit, a dispute that may slow deliveries of Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner.
The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington said on its website yesterday it would review claims by Pratt & Whitney that the Trent 900 and Trent 1000 engines made by London-based Rolls-Royce infringe patent RE38040, which covers a swept-fan blade. The investigation, which typically takes about 15 months, could result in an order to bar U.S. imports of the engines.
The Trent 1000 has been designated by Boeing for its newest passenger jet, which is about three years behind schedule because of parts shortages and redesigns. Airlines that ordered the 787 Dreamliner from Chicago-based Boeing have a choice of the Rolls-Royce engine or the GEnx from General Electric Co.
Pratt's request for an exclusion order banning imports “raises substantial public interest issues,” a Rolls-Royce lawyer, James Adduci of Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg LLP in Washington, said in a Nov. 22 letter to the trade commission.
The ITC should consider the effect on “conditions of competition in the U.S. aerospace and airline industries, not to mention the traveling public and the environment,” Adduci wrote.
The ITC case is part of a broader patent fight between the two engine makers. At stake is a share in a market that generated $46 billion in sales last year for the top engine makers -- GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney.
Rolls-Royce sued East Hartford, Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney in May, claiming the GP7200 Fan Stage infringed a patent for a design that gives the largest part of a jet engine greater resistance to damage by foreign objects, more stability and lower noise levels.
It later amended the complaint to add Pratt & Whitney's Geared TurboFan engines, as Airbus and Boeing considered getting more efficient units on the best-selling A320 and 737 planes.
Rolls-Royce, in an e-mailed statement yesterday, said the ITC complaint had no merit and it would fight the allegations.
The ITC case “is an attempt to divert attention from Rolls-Royce's patent action against UTC which is due to be heard next spring,” the company said. “Every time this case has been before a federal court, Rolls-Royce has won.”
The invention also has been upheld in the U.K., France and Germany by the European Patent Office, the company said.
Pratt & Whitney filed a mirror patent-infringement case in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut. It also has a case pending in the U.K. High Court in London, claiming the Trent 900, Trent 1000 and Trent XWB engines infringe a patent.
The Trent engine for the A380 competes with the GP7200 built by a venture of Pratt & Whitney and GE, the world's biggest jet-engine maker.
The ITC case is In the Matter of Certain Turbomachinery Blades and Engines, 337-751, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).
The September case is United Technologies Corp. v. Rolls- Royce Plc, 10cv1523, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut (New Haven). The earlier case is Rolls-Royce Plc v. United Technologies Corp., 10cv457, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria).