http://tinyurl.com/surefire-sues
In Jan 2012, SureFire is suing 4Sevens, Jetbeam, Insight Tech, Cabela's, Powertac and Eagletac for patent infringement regarding their flashlights. Basically it says that Chi*ese flashlight companies havent copied/cloned anything American.
Verdict: Innocent XXXFire's!
:D
yeah i know. Surefire .. not topic of BLF conversation. i own some Eagtac and 4Sevens and Jetbeam clone Klarus, so i feel att*cked by such AggressiveFire news. grrrhhh. :|
Most likely would be the P60 drop-in except 4Sevens, EagleTac, and JETBeam don't make P60 hosts or drop-ins. Maybe the lock out tail cap? Some of the 4Sevens Maelstrom lights seem to use the same type of switch as SureFire.
They even named BugOut Gear in one of the suits.
Wow! That is a knockout punch to those convinced that the Chinese ****fire lights are nothing more than cheap clones of their beloved Surefire lights. Apparently Surefire feels the Chinese lights are originals and not clones. What will they do now?? LOL! 
Looked into it further. Selector rings, lockout tailcap, and "combat grip" seem to be part of the lawsuit. Get 'em while you can. I doubt many flashlight companies have the resources to fight and instead will just stop production of offending lights. The discount companies are probably still under the radar, but also rarely use LOTC or selector rings.
Maybe they've already missed the boat on enforcing P60's?
They must be feeling threatened. It won't effect Chinese companies that don't have store fronts inside the US probably. We will just have to buy these lights directly from China.
The USA patent office is not well known for actually checking what its handing out patents for. Also the US is virtually the only place that allows patentable business process's and software.
Anyway the lights....Multi output selector rings, switching methods etc.. I think they are getting desparate, from what I have read recently the newer cheaper lights they brought out last year have not sold as well as they would have liked. This looks like they are taking the Apple line (your android tablet has rounded corners, we have the patent for that), if it puts light out the front and it has a switch we patented it.
My opinion is the lights from 4sevens, eagletac and jetbeam are better value and have more features than anything surefire make and price wise people dont want to pay the money surefire are asking.
Trouble is if they do have finacial problems and they go under some patent troll will come along and buy the rights and do the same thing.
Have noticed that CPF seem to be very quite on this....so should be a great subject if you want band :)
I tried to read one of the PDFs but didnt see mention of what was in issue...
Can someone pls tell me what patent is claimed to be infringed?
S F lights I have seen around and I have never, and will never purchase one of their P. O. S. lights.
Reasons:
1. Overpriced
2. Old style out dated
3. no rechargeables
4. lack of updated parts and feachers that China Lights have
5. started using flashlights in Boy Scouts at age 11 or only 60+ years ago. Then in 1966 I bought my first cop light called a Kel-Light powered by 5 "D" cells. Then they became known as Streamlight and now made in China. I called Streamlight today and asked about an upgrade on my Strion C-4 LED. I was asked for the serial number and was tole to send in for a Free up grade of the engine/emitter the lady said it was a Cree but did not know the model number of the Cree. So, now, you know I love my China built lights!
7. More cops carry China built lights than s.f. (Shit-Fire) crap lights.
8. The only maybe plus is you can tell others you can afford the highest price light but not the best thing to tell others you are not a shopper.
I hope the loose all those suits an can go broke. I would purchase their lights if they were the only maker of LED lights.
So, I hope they just go broke!
They're suing over the magnetic switch controls, yada, yada...Flavio from bugoutgear runs the jetbeam-usa website, which is why he's involved. Apparently they went after all of those in America. Sunwayman would of been sued as well, but there is no sunwayman-usa like jetbeam. I had a fun time disagreeing with the surefire fanboys over on cpfm as there is an active thread there. Apparently the mods shut it down from cpf. hehe....but yeah...bad times
Not to go off topic, but what did you do with that monster flashlight?
Not to go off topic, but what did you do with that monster flashlight?
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It's sitting here on my desk reminding me not to buy another Monster Flashlight.
Fenix and Olight are also sued.
I hope the courts will reject $urefire claims.
Meanwhile, Solarforce is looking around, hoping Surefire has forgotten about them.
I find it incredibly ironic that there are so many patents from Mag referenced in Surefire's "inventions" of a tube/switch/bulb...or tube/switch/LED.
I feel bad for the small businesses that have thrived under free market rules, only to be smacked around by a failing, top-heavy, yestertech company. Imagine the poor folks at Fenix-gear who just bought the name and website from 4/7s, only to be named in a Federal suit !!!
I guess if you can't beat 'em, sue 'em. It worked for TiVo - they have made far more money off of patent suits than retail sales.
They are really behaving like Ta!ntF!res. I would like to offer SF's attorney a ringmeat sandwich topped with Fromunda cheese.
I think in the past there was also a case in which Surefire also sued another USA flashlight (more of a weapon light) company, but it was smaller, much smaller in size. Effectively it made it go out of biz due to the amount of legal fees as it dragged on (typical) and it was do-or-die because that company did not have much else to fall back on. That light was much better than Surefire. Forgot the name though....
Pentagon Light
Yep that's the one...
Seems like we have a new company called SueFire... ;)
(and I hope they fail. I hate all these "I've invented the double click" lawsuits)
I guess, the Shot Show has something to do it. All companies, that are sued were present at Shot Show (they could receive suits in hand). Also the date of the suits was the first day of that event.