Glenn Palmer's response to K2/WGP

[leetup]

Glenn Palmer, a very well known figure in the paintball industry, and the creator of many great products, has responded to K2/WGP's claims

June 28, 2004
Trent C. Keisling
Keisling Pieper & Scott PLC
1 East Center Street, suite 217
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72707
Re: Intellectual Property Holdings, Your File No. 012964
Dear Sir:
My name is Glenn Palmer; owner/operator of Palmers Pursuit Shop, which was established in 1987 but has remained a relatively small, service based, operation that also manufactures many products relevant to the situation at hand. Specifically, the auto-cocking, pneumatic system that your client, Worr Games Products, would like for us to believe they have intellectual rights to. In short, I am the one that invented, developed and produced the auto-cocking system, mechanisms and some of the individual components that were adapted for use on/in the Paintball gun now known as the Autococker ™. As such, the true owner of some ¡§valuable intellectual properties¡¨.
After my review of a letter from you to Action Markers, I was thoroughly dismayed by the nefarious nature of its content. While I certainly understand one¡¦s desire to protect their property in this industry, I cannot overlook the fact that your client has long been intentionally and knowingly copying my products and developments, as well as those of several others in and outside of the Paintball industry, thus causing ¡§excessive customer confusion¡¨ that can no longer ¡§continue unabated¡¨. Given the present set of circumstances, I find threats of expensive litigation in the Federal Courts, to be utterly reprehensible so I must openly refute all unreasonable claims of ¡§proprietary
technologies¡¨ and ¡§intellectual property¡¨ made by anyone representing or affiliated with the Worr Games Products organization, made for the purpose of creating hardships for others in the business of Paintball. Unfortunately, K2 bought into the same misrepresentations that the folks at WGP have been
promoting for about 14 years now, which has in fact brought significant financial loss to me and others.
From my layman¡¦s point of view, it seems that you need to reevaluate your position in regards to the assets that were gained in the acquisition of Worr Games Products Inc. . It may just be that K2 and their new affiliates are actually infringing on MY intellectual properties and might consider this as
a demand to cease and desists doing so.
Should you or any of your clients wish to discuss this in greater depth, I can be reached at my
place of business between the hours 2:00 and 6:00 PM, Pacific time, most weekdays. See letterhead for contact information. I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Glenn E. Palmer


Taken from http://www.actionmarkers.com/amNews/...iveGlennK2.htm

[ClankySubset]

wow! I read another section on actionmarkers website that points out somthing important:

"As a player, you may think; "what's the big deal…. so what if AM and other companies can't make a particular model?" Well, with Brass Eagle and WGP being bought by the same company, and now Tippmann being bought by a huge company, the industry is headed towards monopolies. With monopolies come fewer choices, less innovation and higher prices."

Read the rest of this article. It's very interesting:

http://www.actionmarkers.com/amNews/...eK2Letters.htm

[Splatmandu]

I read the article and my take is that paintball as an industry has peeked the interest of big business. It has money generating potential and has now been targeted by these conglomerates; as an example K-2 buys WGP and immediately threatens litigation against Action Markers.

It is my belief that Bud Orr has no influence in the decision making process at K-2, if he was involved in this I would sell my STO tomorrow and abandon the Autoc***** completely. Tom Kayne, if you find this post PLEASE keep up the good fight. Soon the paintball entrepreneur will be gone, marker innovation will stagnate prices will rise and paintball will be out of reach for many.

[Splatmandu]

I picked this up from WGP's site.


K2 Inc. Announces Immediate Campaign to Enforce Autococker® Intellectual Property.
Carlsbad, CA, May 6, 2004: K2 Inc. (NYSE:KTO) announces an immediate and aggressive campaign enforcing the acquired intellectual property rights of Worr Game Products (WGP) including the premium paintball markers incorporating its proprietary Autococker® technology.
K2 Inc. intends to vigorously protect its investment as well as WGP's rights by taking action against imitators who violate those rights. K2 Inc. will promptly investigate all reports it receives of customer
confusion, warranty representation, and illegal importation of substandard or knock-off products. K2 Inc. will take all necessary remedial action to swiftly terminate transgressions upon its intellectual property rights.

Bud Orr, President of WGP in explaining this action to custom product manufacturers and players alike stated, "Our intent is to protect our customers from being misled by non-genuine Autococker® product falsely presented in the market place. We are going to aggressively pursue all companies that we feel are manufacturing, marketing or distributing non-WGP premium markers as the Autococker® brand or look."

K2 Inc. looks forward to continuing WGP's long-standing relationships with responsible custom product manufacturers. Bud Orr reiterated, "Our company wants to make sure that players have the opportunity to experience genuine Autococker® brand markers including those from our approved custom
manufacturers."

[Splatmandu]

I clicked on the 'buy now' link for the Illusion and this is what I got:



Based on a substantial amount of information and evidence presented to us, Action Markers has made the decision to ignore K2’s demand to cease and desist from selling the AM-P Illusion. The information provided to us gives us a high degree of confidence that Action Markers is not infringing on any legally enforceable intellectual rights of K2 or WGP.

For all of you that have been asking about the Illusion, we plan to start selling it again as soon as we can. Due to better than expected demand we had recently sold out of the current stock. Because of our initial decision to immediately cease and desist, we pulled all of the Illusion parts out of our production schedule. It will now be necessary to re-schedule the Illusion into our (very full) production schedule. Our expectation is that we will start shipping new Illusions this fall.

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s concern about the Illusion and your support in this issue.

[leetup]

I'll be rooting for the smaller, more innovative businesses as usual. Wonder how much legal power K2 wil bring in. WGP was beaten by AKA back when the Merlins first came out.

[Scrapydoo]

palmer's pursuit>wgp


...forever. he pretty much pwned k2 right there.

[*~ERIC~*]

Originally Posted by Plague

palmer's pursuit>wgp


...forever. he pretty much pwned k2 right there.

...are you saying Palmer Pursuit is bigger than WGP? If you are you are :screwy . Palmer has been around for a long time with a good following but in no way competes with WGP.

Budd nor Palmer ever successfully patented the auto cocking action of the Autococker nor did WGP patent the Autococker only trademarked the name and that is why AKA beat WGP in their suit. I do no really understand what K2 thinks they can accomplish. They seem to be trying to jump on the band wagon of SP and get some dist. court to make a TOO general ruling and cash in on it.

[Scrapydoo]

i never said it was a larger company..it's greater in my mind tho, all that matters.

[*~ERIC~*]

Not a problem just didn't quite understand what you were trying to say