Caterpillar arrives in San Diego as patent litigation with Doosan Bobcat escalates

Caterpillar flew from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport to San Diego International Airport on Thursday night, a two-hour hop aboard its Bombardier Global 6000, tail N797CT. The flight arrived shortly after midnight on June 12, 2026, touching down in Southern California on a night when the company’s legal team had fresh reason to be in motion.

This week, Caterpillar escalated its patent dispute with Doosan Bobcat, filing an amended counterclaim on May 26 that now alleges violations of Section 337 of the Tariff Act, per filings reviewed by the Engineering News-Record and My-Equipment.com. The company is asking the International Trade Commission to block imports of Bobcat telehandlers and compact track loaders it says infringe on Caterpillar’s machine-control and fuel-efficiency patents. The case, which began with a December 2025 lawsuit from Doosan Bobcat, has since spawned parallel actions in Texas and Delaware federal courts.

The flight continues a busy week for the fleet: earlier on June 11, N797CT moved from Dallas-area airspace to Colorado, following a pattern of shuttling between corporate hubs, court districts, and customer sites. San Diego is not a recurring destination in Caterpillar’s typical routing, but the timing — days after the ITC filing and amid a widening legal campaign — suggests the trip is tied to the company’s aggressive defense of its intellectual property.