Airlines in the hot seat over Virgin’s Upper Class patents

Virgin Atlantic is understood to have started legal proceedings to protect the design of its Upper Class product after competitors started to roll out suspiciously similar seats. Industry sources said that Sir Richard Branson’s airline was suing Contour, a Wales-based seat manufacturer, for breach of patents.
Virgin spent £50 million developing the herringbone shape and layout for its Upper Class and introduced it with great fanfare in 2003. Airlines sell business-class tickets, which generate most of their profits, on features such as the flattest bed and best in-flight entertainment. The largest airlines develop their own seats in order to have a unique sales proposition. Virgin has two patents covering the shape and configuration of the seats and the technology used to lower the seat into a bed.
Contour built Virgin’s seats, but the company has also supplied herring-bone-shaped seats to Delta, Cathay Pacific, Air Canada and Jet Air.
Virgin is thought to be seeking damages from Contour and is also thought to be demanding that these other airlines remove their seats, which could cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue. Contour declined to comment and a spokesman for Virgin Atlantic said that the airline did not talk about active legal proceedings.
Delta, Cathay Pacific and Air Canada are in the process of installing the new seats. Jet, an Indian airline, has already fitted out its aircraft.
22/10/07 David Robertson/Times Online, UK

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, Jet Airways Oct 2007