"LARPer getting Sued" Topic

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Strange. To my uneducated brain it seems the arrow company should be going after the German manufacturer of the rival arrows if they reckon there is a patent infringement.

Or maybe the German company is harder to take on than a bloke selling a few bit and bobs as a sideline….

To my uneducated legal mind, it seems that the Bad Guy Big Company is going after the Little Guy because he can't afford to defend himself, hoping to set a precedent.

Someone's bitter or lazy. A lawsuit was not the best solution, commercially. A better deal, expand the market, stop the importing, lots of ways to get more money than you'll get by suing this guy.

Another example of the, primarily american, patent system is .

That kind of arrow, more or less, has been around since at least the early nineties when I had friends make them.

How can somebody patent them in 2011 and then stops somebody else from making them?

Ridiculous plutocratic dung made to stifle ideas.

Patents are contested all the time.

The patent is intended to give the original idea creator some leeway of time in which to make a profit, thus encouraging people to come up with ideas and be rewarded for them. It would appear that their patent is for foam arrows, and would prevent others from making them. Global are barking up the wrong tree as they should be taking legal action against iDV for manufacture (assuming they had a legitimate case, as it sounds to me that the patent would fail on uniqueness as a product was already on the market) and not him for selling them. However this may be a US legal peculiarity on IP infringements.

Where he may struggle are from the claim lower down that he used the Archery Tag logo without permission, as that would be a trademark infringement.

However this is likely to fare very badly for Global and Archery Tag, as the LARP community is under no obligation to buy from them….

hey guys,
Im in the same boat. please donate money to my legal defense against a major US toy company who is saying I cant repaint my Hot Wheels (TM) cars and resell them on EBay!
j/k

They must use the same 'bottom feeders as GW.heh

If I recall the article makes a brief comment explaining the company in Germany was making their foam arrows prior to Global making theirs here in America. So Global knew they didn't have a chance going after the German company.

They are highly unlikely to be able to get a successful patent on foam arrows. Where they may get a patent is (for example) the fixing method by which the foam head fixes to the arrow, if that is unique or innovative. However that would prevent others from using that method of manufacture and not him from selling them.

This is either somebody very misguided, something throwing their weight around to bluff out the competition, or the reporter has it wrong (as they do appear to have a case against him using the Archery Tag trademark in his advertising).

I don't know about the states, but I thought you were allowed to say "X is better than Y" in advertising over there?

…please donate money to my legal defense against a major US toy company who is saying I cant repaint my Hot Wheels (TM) cars and resell them on EBay!

You joke, but if your eBay listing uses either the Mattel or Hot Wheels trademarked logos without permission they could seek action ;-)

Global Archery has asked the judge overseeing the case to shut down Gwyther's plea for help.

Seems dirty. All possible channels of social media should be used to shame Global Archery. The company may have money for court; but, they may come out looking like royal douchebags.

Patent law wouldnt apply here. The guy is Importing and selling a product he doesnt manufacture.

Well, one thing is for certain-- Global Archery has just lost the PR fight, BIG TIME. Dumb, dumb, dumb move.

How did they get a patent for blunt heads on arrows? They have been in common use for over 500 years. You can buy a head called a boloder blunt Looks just like theirs in most all archery shops. The SCA has been using them for 15 years in open field armored combat.

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I suspect the patent relates specifically to foam arrows, while the existing blunts are rubber, so it's taking existing items and combining them in a new way. However I would question whether the patent was different enough on the grounds of originality.

From the original case, both patents are for non-lethal arrows.

Patent 8449413 issued in 2013 is for "A non-lethal arrow is disclosed that includes a shaft extending along a longitudinal axis. A nock is located on a first end of the shaft and a flight is positioned at approximately the first end of the shaft. A tip connector is included that has a foam tip connection end and a shaft connection end. The shaft connection end is connected with a second end of the shaft. The foam tip connection end includes a plurality of securing ribs extending circumferentially about the foam tip connection end. The securing ribs taper upwardly toward a back surface thereby allowing the securing ribs to grip a foam tip connected with the foam tip connection end. The shaft connection end includes an elongate cylindrical portion defining a hollow tube that is sized and configured to receive the second end of the shaft."

Patent 8932159 issued in 2015 is for "A non-lethal arrow is disclosed that includes a shaft extending along a longitudinal axis. A nock is located on a first end of the shaft and a flight is positioned at approximately the first end of the shaft. A tip connector including a shaft connection end, wherein the shaft connection end is connected with the shaft. The shaft connection end defines a hollow interior portion sized a configured to receive an end of the shaft. A foam tip surrounds at least a portion of the tip connector. The foam tip is overmolded over the tip connector."

However unendorsed use of the Archery Tag logo may be a bigger issue.

Global have tried to back down, having been accused of trying to prevent the sale of any arrows for LARP other than theirs. "Global believes that characterizing or suggesting that the lawsuit is one in which Global is attempting to assert patent rights to any and all "Larp Arrows" is extremely misleading as this is not the case. The term "Larp Arrows" used in Global's complaint was a term of art used to describe the specific arrows involved in the lawsuit. It was not a term used to describe arrows outside of the lawsuit and certainly was not used to include any and all arrows used by persons in the LARPing community.": link