Polaris acquires Brammo

[littlefreak3000]

I believe the batteries and the battery controllers are of their own design. When it comes to electric drive trains the batteries are the meat. So having leg up in that market is a good leg to stand on.

Also you don't need a patent to be a strong company. You just need to be able to produce the products people want. Mc Donalds doesn't have a patent on hamburgers doesn't mean they can't make bank. I think a large factor is Brammo doesn't have experience making and selling motorcycles. Reaching customers is hard for them. Polaris on the other hand has everything they need. It's possible Brammo Motorcycles were slowly bleeding the company or at least just struggling to make a profit that made the time and effort put in worth it. Going from being a design and R&D company and then expect to switch over into production isn't easy.

Or it could be the opposite. Demand might be going up and their little production team wouldn't be able to keep up.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

I am no expert on patents, but I do work very closely with IP attorneys, and a little bit rubs off. Most of Brammo's patent applications are dated in 2011 or earlier. My experience is that patents are usually granted in 2 to 3 years, and I would consider us experts in the process (i.e., we only submit applications for stuff we are pretty sure will be granted, and stuff we intend to license). IMO, some of the patents have lost their value, so Brammo probably won't pursue them anyway (i.e., motor control while shifting, etc.). If they aren't using professional and experienced attorneys to file, I could see it taking longer. But with the sale of the company, I'm not sure what the motivation would be to continue to pursue the process which is not only expensive to start, but expensive to maintain.

I totally agree with Littlefreak that patents are not required to have a successful business. That's a better way of saying what I was trying to get at all along. My point is that the value of the company isn't in the IP but in the experience gained.

[flar]

Maybe it's the quality of our corporate patent lawyers, or maybe this varies by industry, but...

I just checked my 9 patents in the software field.  Only 3 were granted in less than 3 years, the fastest was granted in 2 years 8 months.  The other 6 all took more than 4 years to grant with the longest taking 4 years 9 months.

Two of them were revised to add new classifications (which grants a new patent number for some reason, but it's the same invention) and the revisions took between 2 and 3 years to simply upgrade the Class of the patent (no new text or claims, just an "Oh, and this also falls under Class XXX/YYY" addition).

From my perspective, 2 to 3 years is an uncommon "best you can hope for" and 4 to 5 years is the norm...

[Auslander]

My post on Brammo's FB page and their response:

"Good for Brammo! What about us customers? Am I going to be able to get clutch plates and tranny gears and electronic parts on my Empulse in say, 3 or 4 years from now?"


"Hi Bill - Yes, rest assured you will. Polaris will honor all Brammo’s warranty and future parts availability obligations for Empulse and Enertia."

I hope something amazing happens here.  I lost my dealer less than two weeks after I bought my Enertia+.  I had problems, which the dealer wasn't competent to handle (they also do BMW and Tri, and I'm really not even comfortable bringing my BMW to them).  I had problems, Adam went above and beyond and got my E+ sorted out just fine.

Where it gets interesting: Rumor is they're going to be bought by the mega-center here (multi-brand house, multi-function; street bikes, quads, jetskits, etc).  They do carry Polaris, so there's that.  But, today I noticed what I think is some small leak coming off my fork leg.  The BMW dealer hasn't carried Brammo for... 8-10 months, and they're not acquired by the mega-center yet.

Fortunately, not owning a Zero, I have name-brand forks that'll be easy for any shop to service, but are they warranty?  I don't know, and if they are, no idea how to go about getting them serviced.

I do hope that Polaris keeps the Enertia line going in addition to the Empulse; a low-end commuter bike is just fine for a lot of folks... the E+ is on par (performance, range on one 'fill') as a DRZ-400SM, and costs about 30% more.  The Empulse is about on par with my 1999 BMW (again, range performance) and again, 30% more.  Than a bike that's 16 years old.  That is to say, it performs on par with a 16 year old ICE bike.  I can't see paying 30% more than I did for 16 year old performance, but for the E+ it's a reasonable expenditure, still in the 4 digit range.

HD's really off-base with the Livewire, and if Polaris sinks its teeth in to electric Victories I think that's likewise a mistake; the buyers of those brands and models find the noise and rumble and vibration part and parcel with the design, as much a part of the bike as comfy seating and excessive amounts of chrome.  Polaris would be smart to pursue the path that Brammo has, both high and low end.