Aircraft

Pratt & Whitney has won the first round of patent infringement claims with Rolls-Royce after a court ruled that swept fan blade technology used by P&W on the Engine Alliance GP7200 does not violate patent rights held by Roll-Royce.

In its ruling the US District court for the Eastern District of Virginia explained engine manufacturers have altered the shape of fan blades to avoid "passage shock", which occurs when pressure built up behind the fan causes air flowing through the engine to slow down, and creates inefficiency in the fan rotor. Passage shock occurs in air passages between adjacent blades, near the blade tips. Creating sweeping segments of the leading edges of fan blades helps to reduce or eliminate passage shock.

P&W partnered with GE to develop the GP7200 powering the Airbus A380, which competes with the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 to power the jumbo jet. The major issue in the court's ruling was the number of swept regions on fans in the GP7200 and the fan patent issued to Rolls-Royce in 2000.

The GP7200 has four swept regions while Rolls-Royce filed a patent for a three region design.

In its argument, P&W parent company United Technologies highlighted the four sweep region design of the GP7200 that no patent infringement exists.

Rolls-Royce argued the first rearward sweep on the GP7200 fan blade is in entirely within the root, and therefore the blade does have the three-region sweep that infringes on its patent.

The court disagreed with Rolls-Royce, ultimately concluding the company is "attempting to impute a fourth sweep region," not included in the patent.

Responding to the court's ruling P&W stated: "The court's ruling confirms what we have always maintained, that our products do not infringe the Rolls-Royce patent. If Rolls-Royce chooses to appeal the decision, we will continue to defend ourselves."

Rolls-Royce said it takes protection of its technology and intellectual property very seriously. "We are disappointed by today's ruling and will carefully consider our options."

In the litigation Rolls-Royce also argued P&W violated the swept blade patent on the geared turbofan series powering the Airbus A320neo, Bombardier CSeries, Mitsubishi MRJ and the Irkut MS-21.

Rolls-Royce sought injunctive relief for the PW1100G, PW1400G and PW1500G series, and United Technologies agreed to consent to the injunction, with no award of damages.

The court is directing the parties to draft an injunction that prevents United Technologies from producing fan blades for those three engine variants containing the patent's "forward-rearward-forward leading edge blade profile for the duration of the patent term".

P&W explains it told the court it was not using a three region blade for the geared turbofan, and "offered a consent injunction to "avoid unnecessary litigation over this part of Rolls-Royce's claims. This voluntary injunction will have no impact on the geared turbofan programme".

After Rolls-Royce filed its lawsuit claiming patent infringement, United Technologies and P&W filed their own litigation against Rolls-Royce, arguing Rolls-Royce copied swept turbine bade technology covered under a 1995 patent on its Trent 900 and 1000 engines.

P&W asked the US International Trade Commission to block Boeing from importing the Trent 1000, which powers the 787.