XXXFire sues flashlight companies (patent infrigement)

duro · February 2, 2012, 1:07am

brted:

I doubt the ones being sued will pay the money to go to court unless Surefire insists on huge damages and leaves them with no choice but to fight or go out of business. If Surefire just tells them to stop making and selling the lights or asks for a reasonable royalty, they could settle out of court.

My opinion is if you pay the money to get a patent, you also have to protect that patent. So that is what Surefire is doing. If they don't enforce it, they lose it. I don't blame them; it is part of business, though ultimately consumers lose and the lawyers are the ones that win the most. I think with the tailcap they will probably win, especially against 4Sevens who copied it for the Maelstrom lights.

I think they are only going after companies in the US rather than try to press charges overseas. That's why they are going after some of the sellers instead of the Chinese companies. Also someone said a lot of these lawsuits were delivered at the Shot Show, so that may have played a part in who got served.

I read the suit, surefire is requesting a trial with jurors..the whole nine yards. It's real hokey verbiage they used. They wrote they are devastated, etc...

Surefire has been sued before http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/lawsuit-blames-gun-flashlight-for-death

Also, for the free court documents, go to this website; http://news.priorsmart.com/surefire-v-powertac-l5i7/

Haggai · February 2, 2012, 1:26am

That's what happens when you use the (almost) most stupidly designed remote switch in existence: http://www.surefire.com/DG-Remote-Tailcap-Switch-X-Series

r1derbike · February 2, 2012, 1:26am

And buy another to cover it up!

duro · February 2, 2012, 12:29pm

Seriously Haggai, why not mount the switch where the thumb rest is, or something...I bet they settled out of court on that one. Here's the quote from the surefire spokesman;

“In 1986 SureFire introduced the first light designed specifically for mounting on handguns. This light (equipped with remote switching) was quickly adopted by SWAT teams. In 2004 SureFire introduced the current X-Series WeaponLights, intended primarily for attachment to handguns. There are well over 100,000 SureFire X-Series lights and tens of thousands of optional grip-activated “DG” and “SL” switches in use today, and our competitors have sold thousands of other pistol-mountable lights themselves. During this 25-year period this was the first reported safety-related incident involving our pistol-mounted lights and switches. These figures alone show that SureFire WeaponLights, and weapon-mounted lights are safe.”

"then we sued the crap out of our competitors"

weiser · February 2, 2012, 4:36am

Hmmm... maybe we'll see a Surefire/Apple merger in the near future

Lazarus · October 28, 2014, 11:43pm

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but what happened to this lawsuit? I can’t find any info on it. Is it still going on or did they settle? 4sevens, Fenix etc are still going strong in the states?

will34 · October 29, 2014, 5:50am

4Sevens… not so much, but not because of this lawsuit.

Fenix is growing strong as always and I haven’t heard of any news related to this.

Cereal_killer · October 29, 2014, 6:06am

Hm, this makes me wonder, when 4sevens rebranded to Foursevens did it have anything to do with this? What was their before and after registered LLC from the rebranding? Time frame is about right, they get sued so they shut down 4sevens and start up a brand new company making all the same shit just called a [extremely] similar name, could that really work if you get sued?

Lazarus · October 29, 2014, 12:15pm

What happened to 4sevens? Last time I was around the flashlight loop(around when the lawsuit happened) they were doing pretty well. They hadn’t released any interesting lights for a while(the last time they caught my interest was with Maelstrom) but it was said they had a lot of stuff coming up. Ironically because they were waiting for patents to get filed. I feel really sorry for David if his life and living to smashed because Surefire sued him. It wasn’t really a big company.
I checked around on their site and seems they have not introduced any new models since I left. The company isn’t doing well?

I figured Fenix themselves would shrug this off since they are based in China, Surefire can’t touch them there. But their American retailer might have taken a big hit.

I’m also curious if Surefire won the case in court. If they could claim these silly patents were valid(like the lock out one). Although patent lawsuit makes no sense, same thing with the Apple lawsuits, where they successfully sued other manufacturers for making rectangular devices with rounded corners. Extra pathetic when Apple themselves stole their designs from Braun and LG Prada.