After Legal Trouble, POC Announces Collaboration With MIPS To Create Safer Helmets

A legal disagreement steeped in acronyms has come to a cordial resolution. POC photo.

This morning POC announced that in November of 2017, MIPS AB was granted a preliminary injunction by a German court to prevent an infringement by the helmet manufacturer POC on one of their patents. POC just released SPIN technology in their ski and bike helmets, their own take on the popular MIPS safety system, which they had used in the past. MIPS, SPIN, injunctions, what does that all mean in normal English?

Patrick King, a spokesperson for POC, explained.

"Both MIPS and SPIN are technology integrated into ski and bike helmets designed to prevent concussions and further head injury during a fall with rotational forces," King told TGR. "SPIN uses gel pads sewn into the liner, while MIPS uses a thin plastic shell inside the main helmet foam." 

Basically, POC’s SPIN technology seemed a little bit too similar to the existing MIPS systems already on the market, and MIPS was granted a court order protecting their technology and preventing POC from infringing upon it. 

After a bit of a legal curfuffle, the two companies now intend to work together to develop safer helmets combining both technologies: SPIN will still be integrated in POC product moving forward.