Hedco will appeal patent judgment
The case in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Northern Division, didn’t sound important: “Alden W. Hanson, Plaintiff v Alpine Valley Ski Area, Inc., Defendant.” Yet, when the presiding judge, Honorable James Harvey, handed down his decision on May 17, he set off shock waves throughout the ski area industry from Maine to California.
At issue was U.S. Patent 2,968,164, held by Aldon W. Hanson “in regards to a method of making snow which has become known as ‘airless’ snowmaking because it does not depend on the use of compressed air to make snow.” The application for the patent was filed on February 24, 1958. In November 1969, Hanson granted a license to SMI for use of his patent. He also licensed Boyne Mountain.
Hanson’s suit against Alpine Valley claimed that Alpine’s Hedco equipment infringed his patent, and in a 16-page decision, Judge Harvey agreed, ruling that “Hanson is entitled to an accounting for damages,” and that Alpine was “enjoined from using the Hedco H-2d, Mark II or Mark III Snow Makers.”
The claim was one of long standing, and numerous attempts have been made over the years by Hanson to persuade Hedco to settle and become a licensee. Hedco, however, has consistently claimed that there is no patent infringement, and thus has declined to enter any agreement with them.
On June 6, Gordon Dewey, President of Hedco’s parent organization, The Dewey Electronics Corporation, announced that “it would indemnify customers of its Hedco Division against any lawsuit based on alleged patent infringement by Hedco.” Dewey also added that, “We will appeal the verdict on Alpine’s behalf. We believe the decision contains errors both in law and in fact, and we expect it to be reversed.”
The Hanson patent expires in early 1978, which will change the situation from that time on. However, the expiration of the patent will not affect Hanson’s ability to proceed legally on alleged infringements that took place during the term of his patent.
From the public statements made, it appears that Hanson is looking for damages from Hedco and/or royalties, both retroactively and for the remaining term of the patent. The expectation was that the judge’s strong find in support of Hanson’s patent validity would ‘persuade’ Hedco to settle where frequent attempts to ‘invite’ a settlement over the years had failed. Hedco, however, has stuck to its position that no infringement exists, and plans to “tough it out” through the appeals procedure.
In the meantime, the expectation is that if new litigation is initiated by Hanson it will be against Hedco itself, rather than piecemeal against other areas with Hedco equipment. And, of course, legal maneuverings being what they are, there could still be a settlement. A stay of the injunction against Alpine pending the appeal is possible, and is expected by Hedco; however, it is neither mandated nor automatic, and at presstime it had not been granted. With four months to go before snowmaking time, Alpine was not being pushed.
One of the fascinating sidelights of this particular situation is that Jim VanderKelen, owner of SMI, is by profession a patent attorney, and handled the original snowmaking patent application for Hanson. Parenthetically, Hanson holds the patent that was the basis for the Lange ski boot, the same patent being the basis for his two sons’ Hanson Boot. VanderKelen has handled all this patent work for Hanson, and is on the Board of Hanson Boots.
Where does Judge Harvey’s decision leave ski areas and the snowmaking industry? In all probability, there will be no effect. The two “airless” systems, SMI and Hedco, will continue to be marketed. If Hedco wins on the appeal, the principal beneficiaries will have been the lawyers who have handled the case. If Judge Harvey’s decision is upheld, the damages against Hedco, dating from the time it sold its first machine, could be considerable.
Statement by Hanson
An opinion and order was issued by Judge James Harvey of the Federal Court that the Hedco snowmaking machines infringed Alden W. Hanson’s U.S. Patent 2,968,164.
Hanson announced that after extensive negotiations with Hedco, which wer not successful, this litigation was instituted. Hedco will be ordered to account for damages.
Hanson stated that he is willing to grant a royalty-bearing license to any ski area desiring to use Hedco equipment.
Snow Machines, Inc. and Boyne Mountain are the only companies licensed under the Hanson Airless Snowmaking Patent.
Statement by Hedco
The Dewey Electronics Corporation announced June 6 that it will indemnify customers of its Hedco Division against any lawsuit based on alleged patent infringement by Hedco.
The statement was issued by Gordon C. Dewey, President, after a decision by the U.S. District Court in Eastern Michigan that the Hedco equipment of Alpine Valley Ski Area Inc. infringed on a patent held by Alden W. Hanson, which expires in January 1978. Mr. Dewey’s statement added: “We have agreed to indemnify Alpine, and we will appeal the verdict on Alpine’s behalf. We believe the decision contains errors, both in law and in fact, and we expect it to be reversed.
“The decision will be stayed pending the outcome of our appeal, which is unlikely to come before Hanson’s patent expires in seven months. At that time Hanson’s patent will be without force and effect.
“It is important to note that Hedco’s basic methods and apparatus patents are not at issue in the Hanson vs. Alpine case, and will not be affected by the litigation, whatever its outcome.
“Nor can Hanson proceed against Hedco, or any of its customers, without further litigation in courts of competent patent jurisdiction. Any such action will be vigorously defended by Hedco on its behalf, as on behalf of any of its customers.”
THE NORTHEAST
Expansion is modest
by JOHN HITCHCOCK
While many ski areas in the Northeast enjoyed the biggest business in history, with grosses up by 40 per cent in some cases, major expansions are not the main order of business at most resorts, and again there are no new ski areas.
“Paying off past debts still has top priority,” said Tom Corcoran of Waterville Valley. As he and Phil Saluter of Mount Snow agree, increased operating costs whittle down the net profits—if any exist after bills are paid.
Nevertheless, Corcoran was optimistic enough to talk of a major triple chairlift, increased snowmaking equipment, a convention center, shopping center and three different condominium projects.
Areas with major boosts in skier capacity last year found in many cases that it was great for the skiers, but the new lifts did not generate enough new business to instill confidence in future expansion programs.
Mount Snow plans only modest projects this summer, including a T-bar from the mid-station to the summit. Saluter explained that the T-bar will insure access to the summit if it is too windy to operate the gondola.
Stratton is installing a new chairlift from the midway to the summit, to complement the chair put in last year from the bottom to the midway, opening up new slopes for beginners. Snowmaking will also be expanded.
Killington also plans a new chair. Burke Mountain is looking to the bottom of its mountain for more vertical drop, beginners’ terrain and additional housing, while Jay Peak is concentrating on a new wing on its hotel.
Brodie plans a major lift, while Butternut is adding a huge new baselodge. Jiminy, also in the Berkshires, is opting for year-round business with an Alpine Slide, as are Mount Tom and Boston Hill, also in Massachusetts.
In Connecticut, Ski Sundown, also owned by Butternut’s Murdock family, will have a new triple chairlift.
Most of the new construction in New York involves the 1980 Olympic facilities in the Lake Placid—Whiteface area, with work starting this spring.
Long-range plans for another venerable publicly-operated area, Cannon Mountain in Franconia, N.H., call for replacement of the 39-year-old tramway—but that is subject to political action.
Most operators agree that last winter was great, with snowmaking the big difference in the southern regions, and despite the March 13 flood, which ended the season for some resorts. But they also agree that when all the bills are paid in April, the balance (if any) is so low, that low budget improvements are the order of the year.
THE MIDWEST
Profits plowed back
by TEDDEE GRACE
All those loyal skiers who ignored the Midwest’s record-shattering low temperatures last winter to make the 1976-77 season the best ever for many Midwestern ski areas, will be rewarded for their patronage at a number of areas where the profits are being plowed back into the business to improve services and expand facilities.
In the wake of a record 1976-77 season, Sundown, Dubuque, Ia., is installing its second chairlift, a triple, just east of the existing double chair, as part of a quarter of a million dollar package that will include one new 100-foot-wide beginner/intermediate run and several connecting runs.
Following a $750,000 fire that destroyed its base chalet in late March, Telemark, Cable, Wis., is planning an unusual $1 million underground structure that will replace the burned building and provide space for a 2,000-person-capacity convention center and four tennis courts.
The unique facility will be built underground as an energy saving measure and will be connected by an underground corridor to the west wing mall of the multi-million dollar Telemark Lodge.
Sugar Loaf Village, Cedar, Mich., has just completed a $350,000 lodge addition. Sugar Loaf is also clearing a new area of intermediate terrain between its Devil’s Elbow and Sugar and Spice runs. The area can be serviced by existing lifts, says director of marketing, Steve Heller, but the area is currently pricing lifts and hopes to install an additional lift to serve the new area by the beginning of the ski season.
Devil’s Head, Merrimac, Wis., is clearing another beginner area and installing a new tow rope to service the slope. The cafeteria and bar area in the main lodge are also being expanded.
THE ROCKIES
Accent on snowmaking
by CHARLIE MEYERS
Snowmaking will be a big item in Colorado expansion plans this summer, an apparent hedge against another drought year. Curiously, most of the activity will be by those areas which had some snowmaking to begin with. Part of the reason could be that these resorts had the best view of the benefits to be derived from snowmaking. Or perhaps they came through the winter in the best financial shape to expand.
Whatever the reasons, Winter Park, Keystone and Vail will make substantial additions to existing snowmaking facilities. Newcomers to the artificial snow sweepstakes will be the Aspen Skiing Corporation and Copper Mountain.
The expansion of existing snowmaking facilities at Winter Park and Keystone — the areas at which it proved most successful last season — are remarkably similar. Both will add approximately 50 acres and take snowmaking all the way to the top of the mountain. Winter Park’s total covered acres will be 135; Keystone’s will balloon to 160.
In keeping with this similarity, each also will replace existing lifts with more modern double chairs. Winter Park is eliminating a T-Bar, while Keystone is phasing out an older chair.
Vail is expanding its acreage under snowmaking from 54 to 80 with an $800,000 expenditure, chiefly in the Lions Head area.
Aspen, too, will spend $800,000 to install snowmaking over 70 acres on the lower slopes at Buttermilk. Original plans were to have the snowmaking at Snowmass, but a sufficient water supply was not initially available there.
Copper Mountain is almost certain to spend $650,000 on snowmaking to cover skiing served by two major lifts. One of the coverage areas is definite, the other very likely.
Two other resorts will consider lesser snowmaking projects, although no firm decisions have been made. Aspen Highlands may add some to its limited snowmaking, while Crested Butte is pursuing a plan to cover a portion of its lower slopes.
Loveland Basin, which parlayed an established snowmaking system into a 25 per cent increase in lift ticket sales last season, will stick with its present coverage. It is, however, replacing T-Bar with a double chair to better utilize 135 acres of intermediate terrain. There also will be modification of another lift to improve skier access.
Steamboat will be most active in the lift-building department, installing two double chairlifts which will bring hourly uphill capacity to a total of 14,700 at the area. The resort also will open 94 acres of glades near the top of the mountain.
Throughout Colorado there is a flurry of grooming activity designed to pick the mountains clean just in case last winter’s drought repeats.
MOUNTAIN STATES
A couple of bright spots
by BARBARA WICKS
Despite a record poor snow season in the Intermountain west, there’s still a bit of construction activity planned. At Sun Valley, the single chairs on Dollar and Baldy Mountain are scheduled to be replaced by a double on Dollar and a triple on Baldy’s Exhibition Run. The Idaho resort also plans to add 20 more acres of snowmaking on Baldy to increase man-made snow capability up to the 8,200 foot level in Warm Springs Narrows.
In Utah, Solitude Ski Resort, which closed two years ago, is scheduled to make a comeback this season. Richard Houlihan, president of Solitude, says the resort will spend $2.5 million by November to reopen the resort. First Security Bank of Utah has announced funding for the area’s construction plans. Replacement of three chairlifts and rehabilitation of the base lodge is planned.
At Park City Resort, a permanent snowmaking system will be installed on the Payday run which is used for nightskiing and also on two novice runs adjacent to the First Time chair. This will replace the temporary system used last year on Payday.
CALIFORNIA
Only 3 new lifts
by ROBERT LOCHNER
Ski areas in the Sierra are too busy trying to avoid a re-enactment of the past season to think much about expansion this summer.
Barring last-minute changes in plans, there are only three new chairlifts scheduled to be built in California before the start of next season. Kirkwood will probably go ahead with two new lifts mainly because lift-builder Jan Kunczynski is one of the resort’s main stockholders, and Snow Summit in southern California is due to add a new double-chair.
The reason for this lack of activity, of course, is the drought that plagued the region for the second straight year.
Strangely, the areas in southern California did quite well due to some freak storm tracks at timely moments and the existence of snowmaking equipment.
The lesson of snowmaking has not been lost on the resorts farther north. What little money being spent there is going toward installation of guns, compressors, pipes and the other required ingredients for making it winter whether it snows or not.
Heavenly Valley hopes to have at least one main area completely covered by snowmaking so that it can be skiable by Thanksgiving regardless of the weather.
Ski Incline, which had its best season since opening 10 years ago because it already had snowmaking on the premises, will make a few more refinements, and Boreal will extend the system it started last December.
Other resorts are also planning snowmaking in varying degrees.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Several new lifts
by JOHN HOEFLING
Ski area expansion and construction in the Pacific Northwest is following long-standing plans pretty much this summer—plans made before the drought-plagued, rather abbreviated past ski season, that is.
Big news is the construction of Timberline Lodge’s long-anticipated Palmer lift, which will permit 12 months-a-year of lift-serviced skiing. After many years of planning by area operator Dick Kohnstamm, including four years of hearings and appeals, the Forest Service gave final approval this spring.
Mt. Baker, Washington, will be completing their new Sticky Wicket double chair this summer, according to area manager Duncan Howatt. Its 1,500 feet of vertical rise will open up advanced terrain off the north face of Pandome into Razor Hone Canyon. To be 4,150 feet long, it will have a 1,200 skier per hour lift capacity. This will be the area’s sixth chairlift.
A new beginner’s chair is planned at Mt. Spokane, Washington, this summer. Manager Keith Petrie, again elected Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association President, reports the 1,100-foot long double will have 165 feet of vertical, and will be lighted for night skiing, as are Mt. Spokane’s no. 2 and 3 lifts already.
Mt. Hood Meadows, Oregon, will be adding their sixth chair to the area’s facilities this summer. It will open up 1,400 feet of vertical drop along its 5,800-foot length.
Colorado resorts assess the decline
Final figures from Colorado Ski Country USA show a 38.6 percent decline in skier visits last winter from the 1975-76 record winter of almost 6 million. The impact on the Colorado industry was estimated at $78 million, according to CSCUSA President Garry Mitchell.
Snowmaking loomed large when areas such as Keystone, Lake Eldora, Loveland Basin and Ski Broadmoor, all of which have substantial snowmaking capabilities, actually showed an increase in skier days over the previous season.
The statistics showed that Vail and Winter Park had the highest number of skier days — Vail had 685,351 and Winter Park had 456,543 — and both areas have snowmaking and extensive snow grooming operations.
Stowe appoints president. . . and other names in news
Following a long search, Sepp Ruschp announced on June 22 that his successor as president of the Mt. Mansfield Co. is Vernon Johnson, 48, of Jackson, Wyo. A native of Idaho, Johnson has been an executive with Rockresorts for 16 years. Sepp Ruschp, whose association with Stowe dates from 1936, becomes board chairman. . .Gloria Chadwick, president of Burke Mt. in Vermont, is 1977 winner of the highest U.S. Ski Association award, the Julius Blegen Memorial Plaque and Medal “for outstanding service to the sport of skiing”. . .Jerry Groswold elected chairman of Colorado Ski Country USA.
SUPPLIER NEWS
Montaz-Mautino to Gryphon
Gryphon Corporation of North America, exclusive U.S. representative of Nuova Agudio, has been awarded the exclusive U.S. representation for the sale and service of Montaz-Mautino chairlifts and surface lifts. This Grenoble-based lift company has a substantial share of the French lift market.
Enrico Monti, who heads the Killington-based Gryphon, also announced that the Nuova (New) Agudio company has expanded its operations to include additional manufacturing facilities and an enlarged engineering and planning department. The Milan-based firm manufactures aerial tramways, gondola systems, funicular systems and other types of industrial hauling systems.
Joe Tropeano forms Larchmont International
Reflecting the split-up between pioneer snowmaking brothers, Joe and Phil Tropeano, a new firm has been created called Larchmont International, with headquarters in Milton, Mass. It is not affiliated with Larchmont Engineering or Larchmont Engineering and Irrigation, Inc. of Lexington, MA.
Larchmont International has set up distribution of its S/L snowmaking systems in eight European countries, and manufacturing facilities in Sundsvall, Sweden. There are also plans to expand into Australia and Japan.
Details are available from Joseph Tropeano, Spraco/Larchmont International, P.O. Box 448, Milton, Mass.
Nye named Hall director
Ralph H. (Harry) Nye has been elected as a director of Hall Ski-Lift Company. A veteran of 16 years with the company, Nye is the supervisor for production and material control operations for Hall. “His tremendous experience and ability will be most helpful to the Board in its deliberations,” said Victor E. Hall, chairman.
