Harley-Davidson sues aftermarket engine manufacturers

Harley-Davidson recently filed a lawsuit against aftermarket engine builders S&S Cycles and Delkron, claiming the companies violated patent rights on certain engine components, as well as company trademarks.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (Case No. 05-C-0298) on March 17, 2005, the lawsuit alleges that the companies copied parts related to the Harley-Davidson Twin Cam 88 engine (right), as well as violating Harley-Davidson trademarked names, including Evolution, FXR, Softail, Twin Cam 88 and Sportster, as well as some common-law trademarks such as Evo, Shovel and others.

The lawsuit appears to represent a change in Harley's relationship with the huge, V-twin aftermarket industry. After years of building thousands of engines that shared interchangeable parts with Harley production engines, the aftermarket companies now find themselves at odds with the Motor Company.

S&S is known as a major supplier of engines and components to the aftermarket and custom world. Big Dog Motorcycles, which is projected to sell over 4,000 units this year, is just one of the top-name manufacturers utilizing S&S products.

Paul James, communications manager at Harley-Davidson, said, "We had repeatedly notified them (S&S, Delkron) about infringements on Harley-Davidson patented parts and intellectual properties."

He said the components Harley was most concerned about were the transmission to engine interface and the lubrication system on the Twin Cam engine—parts that The Motor Company had spent numerous research and development hours on.

Previous engines developed by Harley-Davidson always had a certain amount of interchangeability with past designs. The Evo (right) for instance, actually shared many common parts with older models.

When introduced in 1999, the Twin Cam was hailed as a truly new engine, even though Harley designers made sure it looked very much like its predecessors. So many new and innovative parts were created, a company spokesman at the introduction said he could hold in one hand the number of parts that were interchangeable with parts from previous big twins.

With that level of development and testing, James said, the company had no choice but to enforce the patents they own and have the exclusive rights to.

Through press releases, S&S has responded to the suit saying Harley-Davidson’s complaints are unfounded and the company plans to continue production.

"S&S has reviewed the issues raised in Harley-Davidson's complaint and believes they are without legal basis," stated one release dated March 24. "S&S respects the intellectual property rights of others and the S&S products at issue in this lawsuit were the result of S&S's own engineering designs. S&S does not have any connection to Delkron in this action and does not believe that Harley-Davidson had any basis to name them and Delkron in the same lawsuit."

On a more personal note, S&S President Brett Smith said in the same release, "It is a great disappointment that Harley-Davidson is taking legal action against us. My grandfather, George Smith, helped found the V-Twin performance aftermarket industry in the mid-1950s and assisted Harley-Davidson with their Bonneville record run in 1970. We have always felt that a mutually beneficial relationship existed between S&S and Harley-Davidson; our 145-Tribute project in 2003 is evidence of that—100 years for Harley-Davidson and 45 years for S&S and the performance aftermarket.

"We do not understand why after all this time Harley-Davidson is raising these claims. Whatever the reason, this lawsuit will not affect our continued commitment to be the premier provider of Proven Performance components to the V-Twin aftermarket."

S&S issued another release on April 1. "We want to assure our customers of our continued commitment," said Michael Scaletta, S&S Cycle's current product engineering manager and third-generation family member.

"We will continue supplying our Proven Performance products, including twin cam style engines and components, to our customer base. This lawsuit will not change how we approach product development or sales of our high performance engines, components, and assemblies."

Steve Swarthout, owner of Delkron, Inc., which manufactures cases and other aftermarket engine components, declined to discuss the suit at this time. "Our attorneys are working on it," he said.

(Photos courtesy of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company archives; copyright H-D)