Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Riddell Will Continue, Judge Rules

A Texas federal judge told helmet manufacturer Riddell Inc. that it will not be able to escape a wrongful death lawsuit, denying the company’s motion to dismiss based on the state’s statute of limitations.

DuQuan Myers played high school football in the Dallas area from 2005 through 2009, during which his mother, Letitia Wilbourn, claimed that he suffered 15 concussions and “innumerable subconcussive blows to the head.” Myers took his own life in February 2017, and his mother filed suit against Riddell in March 2019, …

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Out of Time: Ex-NFL Players’ Suit Against Riddell Time Barred

In July 2016, a group of former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the sports equipment manufacturer, Riddell, Inc., in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. However, on October 21, 2019, Illinois’s First District Appellate Court ruled that the players’ suit is time barred by the “two-year statute of limitations governing personal injury actions in Illinois.”

In their complaint, the players alleged Riddell “failed to warn” that their “plastic helmets could not protect” the players against concussions or long-term neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, the …

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Reebok-CCM Presses for Details in Royalties Case

Reebok-CCM Hockey is being sued by Hefter Impact Technologies (HIT), and is pressing the helmet maker for more information to substantiate their claims. HIT is alleging that Sport Maska, Inc., who is doing business as Reebok-CCM, ignored a contractual obligation by using a certain design of a hockey helmet which HIT has proprietary rights to.

HIT had previously been well compensated from sales of the Vector line of helmets, which Reebok-CCM began producing in 2007 based on HIT designs. HIT was paid $1.4 million in …

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Football Helmet Maker Riddell Sued Rawlings for Patent Infringements

Sports equipment manufacturer Riddell filed a four-count lawsuit against Rawlings, another sporting goods maker, over five Rawlings helmet models—Tachyon, Impulse, Quantum, Momentum and Force—and shoulder pads that allegedly infringe on Riddell’s technology.

More specifically, the lawsuit involves three patents related to protective helmet designs and one related to shoulder pad design.

At the end of the 2013 season, NFL and Riddell agreed to end a deal that gave Riddell an exclusive right to put its name on the helmet’s nose bumper.  For the approximately …

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Riddell Takes Huge Hit with Multi-Million Dollar Verdict in Colorado Concussion Lawsuit

A jury in Las Animas County, Colorado, returned an $11.5 million verdict against helmet manufacturer Riddell and several school officials in a case involving a teen football player who was injured in 2008.  The Ridolfi family filed a lawsuit after their son Brett suffered a concussion during high school football practice.  Brett wasn’t immediately taken to the hospital, and later suffered permanent brain damage and paralysis on his left side.  The family brought suit against Riddell and others to recover for Brett’s injuries.

The jury …

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