Brass Eagle announces settlement of Odyssey lawsuit

[manike]

Brass Eagle announces settlement of Odyssey lawsuit

Taken from Brass Eagle's Website

"Bentonville, AR, January 31, 2003 - Brass Eagle Inc., (Nasdaq: XTRM) the worldwide leader in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of paintball products, and Odyssey Paintball Products LLC of Garland, Texas, jointly announces the settlement of Brass Eagle’s lawsuit against Odyssey, alleging violation of one of Brass Eagle’s loader patents that was pending in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Odyssey Paintball agreed to pay Brass Eagle an undisclosed sum of money and both parties have agreed to dismiss the suit.

John Flynn, Vice President and General Counsel of Brass Eagle, said “We reserved the right to relitigate this matter if necessary, however, at the present time, we are satisfied with the results of this litigation. Brass Eagle will continue to vigorously enforce its intellectual property rights.”

See the original HERE!

So what do you think guys?

 

[Beaker]

It rather depends on the sum that changed hands

Personally I think BE wimped it.

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by manike
So what do you think guys?

First, I wondered why anyone would spend anytime at BE's website---at least until I saw Ashley. Then I wondered why you posted about the lousy Hopper Wars.

About the hoppers, BE got what they wanted. A slice of the HALO pie without years of litigation and precedant should another similar situation arise.

 

[manike]

An 'undisclosed sum' could mean many things Baco

Ashley is cute huh?

 

[Baca Loco]

Originally posted by manike
An 'undisclosed sum' could mean many things Baco

True, but if the suit had merit then some sort of "licensing" arrangement would be reasonable and if the suit had no merit then BE simply "extorted" a payment out of Odyssey.

 

[manike]

I agree completely.

Do you think if the suit had merit, that BE would have settled? and allowed Odyssey to continue to make hoppers?

 

[Baca Loco]

I agree completely.

Originally posted by manike
Do you think if the suit had merit, that BE would have settled? and allowed Odyssey to continue to make hoppers?

No clue. But patent applications generally require very specific and frequently narrowly defined characterizations of function, design and use. So legal action tends, unless its unambiguous, to be about how far the patent holder can extend their influence. At a guess I'd be inclined to say that BE's resources vastly outstrip Odyssey's and they were looking at potentially long years in court and legal fees.
I also find it interesting BE's claim was to protecting "intellectual property" which would suggest their claim was based less on the HALO product itself but on work that may have been done or initiated by person(s) working for VL in the past prior to working for Odyssey. But its all pure speculation on my part, of course.

 

[manike]

I agree with your guess.

Intellectual property is a term often used to refer to the ownership of patents. It can also be broader than that, but that's it's most common use.

Their suit was in reference to their patents. And I believe specific claims in them.

When you try for a patent you try to get it as broad as possible such that it will encompass as much as possible. Then the Patent Office beat you down, tightening your claims until you hopefully both reach a compromise. It's a long and drawn out process. Takes years and costs you lots of money!

Tex did once work for VL but as far as I am aware that didn't come up in the suit. It was just over their intellectual property (read patents).

 

[Beaker]

piCgAeTons

M - what's your thoughts on Podbitch's report

 

[manike]

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