Motorcycle industry group suit threatens Idaho, Oregon safety programs

The fate of Idaho’s motorcycle safety training program could rest on the outcome of a lawsuit brought by a motorcycle industry group.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation, an industry trade association, has sued the state of Oregon’s motorcycle safety program for copyright infringement. Idaho’s motorcycle training program, Idaho Skills Training Advantage for Riders, or STAR, is substantially the same as Oregon’s and uses the same materials. Though Idaho is not named in the suit, Idaho STAR Training Manager Stacey “Ax” Axmaker said he expects it to be.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation sells training materials to states for use in motorcycle safety courses. After using one training curriculum for years, the MSF decided to develop a new curriculum and discontinued the old curriculum materials.

Oregon wasn’t comfortable with MSF’s new program.

“According to the amended complaint, when the plaintiff overhauled its program … (Director of Team Oregon Motorcycle Safety Program Stephen) Garets complained that the new BRC (Basic RiderCourse) was an inferior and substandard program,” states a motion to dismiss the MSF’s complaint or transfer it from a California district court to the state of Oregon.
“Indeed, the new program had been ‘dumbed down’ to make it easier to pass. That would benefit plaintiff’s benefactors – the motorcycle manufacturers – but not make safer riders,” the motion reads.
The motion to dismiss the case was filed by the Oregon Department of Justice on behalf of Team Oregon Motorcycle Safety Program and Oregon State University, which oversees the program. It is to be heard June 25.
“The research that we did, it did not meet the needs of the novice rider as well as the other version,” said Axmaker, who worked with Oregon’s program before coming to Idaho. “We couldn’t in good conscience adopt it and pitch the old one.”
Oregon decided to create its own curriculum and make it equal to or better than the MSF’s original program, he said.
The Oregon and Idaho programs offer more training for turning and cornering than the original MSF program, since most motorcycle accidents take place when drivers are turning, Axmaker said. They also require trainees to ride more miles, and provide extensive training in stopping within short distances, he said.
In its complaint, MSF claims Oregon’s materials use text, graphics, layout and the sequence of lessons that were in MSF’s curriculum materials.
Oregon’s motion does not address these complaints, merely claiming that the state of California does not have jurisdiction over Garets, Team Oregon or OSU.
However, Charles Fletcher, senior assistant attorney general for the Oregon Department of Justice, says that MSF’s claims have no merit.
“The two programs are not the same, and not even close to being similar enough for MSF to claim infringement. A casual observer could see that,” Fletcher said. “Oregon’s Basic Rider Training program has been studied by independent parties (including one academic study) and found to be a superior product … Given that it’s demonstrably better, it can’t be the same. And it’s not close to being similar either.
“Nobody at Team Oregon infringed anything of MSF’s,” he said. “Team Oregon developed its own program from scratch, and we can prove it (and will).
“This case is not really about copyright infringement, and it’s not even about motorcycle safety. It’s about MSF’s attempt to control all introductory motorcycle safety training so they can be the only authoritative spokesman on those issues in lobbying for the manufacturers, whose interests MSF admits that it represents. I hope you will ask MSF the question so many people ask: ‘What does this lawsuit have to do with motorcycle safety, and how does this suit make riders safer?’”
Axmaker said much of the terminology MSF claims is protected by its copyrights was in existence before MSF.
Several of the motorcycle manufacturers represented by MSF offer their own motorcycle training programs for profit. Harley-Davidson offers the Rider’s Edge program, which, according to Harley’s Web site, ranges in cost from $195 to $350. The Idaho STAR basic course costs $75, and the Idaho STAR experienced course costs $40.
High Desert Harley-Davidson owner David Thomas said he would offer Rider’s Edge if Idaho allowed him to, but it doesn’t. However, he called STAR a fine, well-run program. “Harley isn’t keen on it,” he admitted. “I’m Switzerland on this one.”
A blog called Moonrider tracks crash rates for several state’s motorcycle rider safety programs. Its author criticizes MSF for changing its programs and states that in 25 years and after training 1.67 million riders, the old program had only one death due to a motorcycle accident during training. Since 2004, after training 1.4 million riders, the new MSF program has had two deaths and Rider’s Edge has had three.
Oregon’s crash injury rates were considerably better in its training program than the one other state using MSF’s new program that Moonrider had data for.
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To contact the author of this story, send e-mail to:  lora.volkert@idahobusiness.net.