Jet Ski Court Case Settled

The ad campaign for the personal watercraft sold by Irvine-based Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., used to say that if it wasn’t a Kawasaki, it wasn’t a Jet Ski.

But Kawasaki announced Thursday that it had settled a two-decade dispute with Nevada inventor Clayton Jacobson over Jacobson’s claims that Kawasaki tried to cut him out of the profits generated by a product he invented.

Terms of the agreement, reached after a federal court overturned a Los Angeles jury’s $21-million damage award to Jacobson last year, were not disclosed. But a Kawasaki attorney said the company made a cash payment to Jacobson.

Kawasaki acknowledged that Jacobson invented the personal watercraft in 1968, and Jacobson credited Kawasaki with creating a market for the product and making important contributions to its development. Kawasaki’s products are marketed under the Jet Ski trademark, although most people use the term to denote any similar product.