Peloton awarded $4.3 million in attorney fees from a failed patent lawsuit

The company that designed parts of Peloton’s first bike, and whose owners later bought a related patent from Microsoft and sued Peloton for infringing on it, owes Peloton $4.3 million for failing to defend it from the patent claim.

Eric Villency, the CEO of Villency Design Group, was part of the original design team that built the frame of the original Peloton bike. In June 201 after his contract expired, Villency created a new company called VR Optics. VR Optics then acquired a patent from Microsoft. The rumor is that Microsoft had patented some of the software features used in the Peloton software. VR Optics turned around and sued Peloton for patent infringement on this patent they had acquired.

Courts ruled in 2020 that the patent was invalid, and Peloton had requested to be awarded attorney’s fees. Peloton was awarded $4.3 million in attorney fees and $1.2 million in interest.

Background information from PeloBuddy.