Dye eliminating 3rd party aftermarket bolt kits?

[Gyroscope]

So, apparently, Dye is asking aftermarket bolt manufacturers to stop producing Matrix bolt kits.

Here is part of what was sent to one such company:

"Richard D. Clarke
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ATTORNEY
3755 Avocado Blvd., #1000
La Mesa, CA 91941-7301
Telephone 619-670-1702 Facsimile 619-670-7585
October 28, 2003
VIA E-MAIL AND U.S. MAIL
Greg Duncan
Aardvark Paintball Direct
29 Player Street
Stradford, Ontario, CANADA
N5A1V1
Re: Infringement of Dye Precision’s “MATRIX”
Gas Powered Gun/Piston and Cylinder Patent
Our Ref. No.: 03-DYE/920
Dear Mr. Duncan:
My office represents Dye Precision, Inc. (Dye) regarding certain intellectual property
matters. It came Dye’s attention that your organization has been manufacturing and/or marketing
individual parts integral to the “Matrix” gun and gun bolt design. In particular, Aardvark Paintball
Direct offers for sale on the world wide web an Aardvark Bolt Kit, Bolt, Front Wall, Front Can, Stop
Plate, Top Hat, Spacer, Rear Wall and a Rear Cap. We believe that these items infringe U.S. Patent
No. 5,613,483. Dye exclusively owns all such patent rights.
Dye believes your “Matrix” gun, and piston/cylinder patent infringement tarnishes Dye’s
reputation and is causing significant goodwill loss. There have been numerous documented cases
where Dye Matrix guns were sold and returned with warranty claims with malfunctions directly
related to insertion of your company’s parts into Dye’s Matrix gun. Dye will not tolerate this
blatant violation of its proprietary rights.
Therefore, the purpose of this letter is to put you and your organization on notice of this
potential infringement. In this regard, we request that you cease and desist from all manufacturing
and/or marketing of any gun bolt parts related in any way to the “Matrix” gun, and in particular parts
which are integral to the gun bolt, piston and cylinder.
Patent infringement is governed by federal patent law and is a very serous legal matter. If
you do not immediately (1) immediately cease and desist making and selling the infringing articles;
(2) liquidate all inventory within the next 30 days and document such liquidation to Dye’s
reasonable satisfaction, and (3) remove all advertising related to the making and selling of the
infringing articles from all media, including the World Wide Web and all print media, we will take
legal action in federal court.
Our remedies in federal court include obtaining an injunction against you and your
organization, filing and prosecuting a lawsuit against you and your organization, in which we will
demand a full accounting of all sales of infringing items and we will seek damages that will include..."

I have been following this for a few days. Any thoughts?

 

[Baca Loco]

Two things come immediately to mind:
If it's working for Smart Parts Dye must be hoping it'll work for them (though it strikes me as a mistake if they intend to attempt to completely restrict aftermarket parts), and;
I'm guessing Smart Parts didn't get a letter regarding the Shocker's internals,
but what about Gen-E, The Matrix Center, KAPP and others?

Of course, Dye may simply want a piece of the action based on their gun.

 

[TOPOR]

Evolve is concerned also... or do they have an agreement?

Nevertheless, I always heard good things about Aardvark upgrades... mmmh

 

[DMZ Hasse]

Originally posted by TOPOR
Evolve is concerned also... or do they have an agreement?

Nevertheless, I always heard good things about Aardvark upgrades... mmmh

I would even go as far as to say: Without Aardvark upgrades, the Matrix would be a much less popular gun today. According to Aardvark, their new bolt (Aardvark Slam Valve) is not touched by this legal matter.

Edit: Oh yes: Evolve: Give back my logo!

 

[Flash-Bugout]

Dear Mr After-market phat exhaust manufacturer.

It has come to my attention that you make bits for Fords, in paricular slammed suspension kits and phat exhausts.

We believe your phat bits tarnish the reputation of Fords, and is causing many people to believe that fords are only driven by boy-racer wideboys.

Therefore, we must insist that you not only stop selling, but also destroy any trick bits that you hold in stock.

-----------------

Is it just me, or does the above sound totally ridiculous?

So why, I wonder, does it sound so much less ridiculous when in a paintball context, reffering to "oi, we don't like your aftermarket bits, cos people are buying them instead of ours".

Could it be that in general* big paintball companies are owned/run by people with too much money, who want even more money?

I say to the money grabbers.

*and I'm generalising here, but all generalisations are true

 

[Gyroscope]

According to my agents, Evolve is also been served papers. Don't know about the rest.

Thanks to the agents pictured below, who worked hard to find this out:

 

[Tom Allen]

Could this be the long arm of SP flexing its legal muscles via dye.

 

[Gyroscope]

Um, no offence, but I regard that as paranoid. I think Dye could be *******s without being puppets. Sometimes, you just do a thing because you can, without weighing all the downsides. And though they have the patent on a great many things, SP neither invented corporate piracy nor have they purchased exclusive intellecctual property rights.

Then again, it is possible that Dye is about to reveal a new paradigm in how paintball can innovate. They may be on the verge of a new model of design evolution, which doesn't require input from multiple entities or the competitive impetus to go beyond what has already been done.

Personally, I think it is an attempt to intimidate royalties of some kind from aftermarket bolt producers, who they think will settle rather than face litigation. I hope that they both litigate and diversify their operations, so that they are not reliant on the Matrix. I hope that this tactic, if that is what it is, fails and is very expensive for Dye. More that that, I hope I am wrong.

 

[StLballer007]

Thats funny becuase in America you can not legaly have a monopoly or try to create a stituiation where there might be a monopoly. This is what dye is doing(i personaly am a huge fan of dye). By doing this they are hurting there reputation. They should do something like Warped Sportz that if it is not an approved after-market part than they will not honor there warrenty that is the only fair thing. To have others stop making a bolt kit is insane.

 

[QuackingPlums]

Originally posted by toma
Could this be the long arm of SP flexing its legal muscles via dye.

Hang on, how did this become SP's fault again?

Like I said before, it's all business. We don't have to agree with it, but it happens. When can we break out the "Nazi Dye" avatars?