An international patent dispute has broken out over berry harvesters between farm machinery manufacturers in Washington state and Serbia, which had previously cooperated on equipment sales.

Blueline Equipment of Moxee, Wash., has asked a federal judge to declare it hasn’t infringed on the patent for an “air blast soft fruit harvesting device” owned by shareholders in the BSK manufacturing firm in Belgrade, Serbia.

Blueline claims it’s been wrongly accused of building its own product by misusing BSK’s patent for the device, which the Serbian company claims has cost it millions of dollars in lost profits and may result in international arbitration proceedings.

Dealership deal reached

According to the U.S. company’s federal complaint, Blueline had entered into a dealership contract to sell BSK’s Kokan berry harvester in Oregon, Washington, California, Michigan and British Columbia in 2020.

Blueline bought 40 of the Kokan harvesters, which rely on BSK’s patented components, but soon found the machines “did not work well or perform well for the plants, fields and land” owned by U.S. berry farmers, according to the complaint.

Specifically, the Kokan harvesters “did not have the capacity to handle the larger fields or rows of bushes or crops” in the U.S. and failed to harvest a “sufficient percentage of the crops” due to their inability to “knock or remove the fruit from plants,” the complaint said.

‘Mechanical solution’ developed

To correct the problem, Blueline developed a “mechanical solution” to alter the Kokan harvesters with the knowledge of BSK, which has incorporated the changes into its own equipment, the complaint said. Blueline claims the fix did not rely on BSK’s patented “pulsator” component, which directs pulses of air to knock fruit from plants.

Blueline replaced the BSK “pulsator” component in its inventory of Kokan harvesters with the “slapper” unit it created “to get them to function in the marketplace,” the complaint said.

While the change was communicated to BSK and observed by its representatives during U.S. visits, they seem to have misunderstood that Blueline’s “slapper” is used in conjunction with the “pulsator,” the complaint said.

When the dealership contract to sell Kokan harvesters expired in early 2023, BSK shareholders alleged Blueline had violated their intellectual property and demanded it “pay millions of dollars for the nonexistent patent infringement” to renew the deal, the complaint said.

Arbitration demand

During subsequent negotiations, BSK shareholders have threatened to file a demand for arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce, a global business organization, which would occur in Serbia, the complaint said.

In its recent lawsuit, Blueline is seeking a declaration that it couldn’t have infringed on the pulsator patent because that component wasn’t ultimately used in the machinery.

However, if it’s determined an infringement has occurred, Blueline said it reserves the right to argue the “patent is invalid for multiple reasons.” The complaint also wants to recover “reasonable attorneys fees and costs” from BSK’s shareholders.

Representatives of BSK have not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Cease-and-desist letter

However, a cease-and-desist letter from BSK’s shareholders claims Blueline has committed “brazen” patent infringement that’s “causing significant damage to BSK’s business and will not be tolerated.”

Apart from violating BSK’s intellectual property, Blueline’s actions have breached the terms of its dealership agreement to sell equipment, the letter claims.

The infringing product developed by Blueline “features a near-exact match for the cascading series of air outlets” detailed in the BSK patent, which uses “a blast of pressurized air to separate soft fruit from plants,” the letter said.

According to the letter, Blueline has continued to “willfully infringe” on the BSK patent “despite multiple similarity assessments and communications” and has actively induced its customers to violated BSK’s intellectual property as well.

BSK’s letter alleges the patent infringement has caused the company damages of 3.6 million euros, which is the current equivalent of about $3.9 million, and demands Blueline stop violating the patent.

“Should the parties fail to come to an agreement, BSK will pursue all damages against Blueline, including all of Blueline’s profits made on the sale of the infringing product,” the letter said.