Pinarello has responded to allegations, made on Monday by Taiwanese brand Velocite, that the new Dogma F10 copies patented designs from Velocite's Syn bike.
The issue concerns the concave downtube design, around the bottle cage, visible on the new Pinarello Dogma F10 as well as the latest Bolide time trial bike. The release of the Dogma F10 on Monday prompted an open letter written by Velocite CEO Victor Major, which accused Pinarello of having infringed its patent and ignoring his communications to them.
'[Pinarello] obviously takes Intellectual Property issues with the utmost seriousness,' reads an open response from Pinarello, released on Thursday.
The brand echoes Major in that it responded to him initially, but points out that 'Mr. Major’s communication was lacking essential information since it did not identify which of Pinarello’s products were contested nor did it give any explanation as to why such products would allegedly infringe Mr. Major’s patents. Providing this information is not ancillary but mandatory when an infringement is alleged.'
Major accused Pinarello of not responding further beyond the initial communication, but Pinarello's side of the story is that this was on the condition that 'in the meantime we will have received the information mentioned above.'
Velocite Syn downtube
Pinarello says it was still waiting to receive the extra information from Major when he posted his open letter.
'Despite his own fault in not answering Pinarello’s request for clarifications, Mr. Major chose to publicly write his “Open letter” and to depict Pinarello as a sort of “thief”, who uses a patented design without permission and does not respond to legal letters.
'Although Pinarello can understand that his behavior may procure Mr. Major a rise in his notoriety, that same behavior is deeply unfair, since Mr. Major himself is perfectly aware that he chose not to discuss the issue with Pinarello.
'[Pinarello] was, and is, available to discuss the matter with Mr. Major, but will not tolerate and will take appropriate actions against any unsupported allegation, explicit or implicit, of being an infringer or a “thief”.'