Switch Exposes Ride Suit As Baseless

April 30 1996 San Francisco, CA

Switch Manufacturing, which produces the extremely successful Autolock step-in binding system, revealed today that it is the target of a wholly unjustified patent infringement suit. The suit, brought by Preston, a subsidiary of Ride Inc. is without merit and constitutes a bad faith attempt to harass and intimidate a smaller competitor having a superior product.

Ride's suit was brought in Federal Court in New York City, even though all of the parties are located on the West Coast, and alleges infringement of the "Raines" patent, an early (late 1980's) snowboard step-in binding design that failed to be commercially successful. The well known "Raines" patent was thoroughly reviewed by Switch, its legal counsel and independent third parties - all of whom concluded that no infringement exists.

Switch provided this conclusion to Ride in January 1996, yet Ride still elected to file suit on April 2, 1996. In response, Switch has now asked the courts to declare that no patent infringement exists. The full lawsuit text will be available within the next few days on Switch's web site at www.switch-sf.com.

The suit does not affect Switch's ability to continue to produce and sell its pioneering Autolock step-in system. Switch projects a ten-fold increase in sales for the 1996/1997 compared to the 1995/1996 season, establishing the Switch Autolock system as the worldwide leader in step-in binding systems.

Inquiries should be directed to Patrick Brennan at 415.896.2245 or Dan Adams at 415.777.9415 You can also reach Patrick Brennan via email: [email protected]