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Sith & Wesson Loses Their Freaking MindsPosted by Bob Owens on December 22, 2015 at 8:39 pm
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This one-off “Dream Gun” is at the center of a “tempest in a teacup” of epic proportions. Image Via Apex Tactical.

As long as there have been mass-market commercial firearms, there have been companies and gunsmiths that have build niche markets improving the factory guns to higher levels of performance.

These aftermarket experts make otherwise “vanilla” firearms palatable to discerning buyers who might otherwise opt for a different firearm that has higher performance out of the box. It has always been a “win-win” arrangement that smart companies in the industry have enjoyed.

Smith & Wesson—or perhaps we should say Sith & Wesson—is apparently not one of those “smart companies.”

S&W—which is just finally earning the forgiveness of many in the industry for their “smart guns” collusion with the Clinton White House in 2000—has instead sent a bullying cease and desist letter to the four companies that built the 2016 Brownell’s “Dream Gun” to be proudly displayed at SHOT Show in Las Vegas next month.

Show guns are nothing new. They are flashy, typically custom-made firearms showing off products or services.

A competent firearms industry legal team would know of show guns, and the role they’ve long played in helping promote products and services in the sort of “win-win” way we’re described.

But Smiths legal team of Ballard Spahr aren’t apparently a “competent firearms industry legal team,” and are demanding that the four companies receiving the letter:

 1. Confirm in writing that neither you nor any third party will display the Infringing Product, or any similar product, at the 2016 SHOT Show or make any other commercial display or promotion of such Infringing Product;

2. Cease the sale of any firearm modified by you or any other third party that bears any Smith & Wesson trademark, including, but not limited to the S&W® Marks or the M&P® Marks;

and

3. Turn over to Smith & Wesson your inventory of the Infringing Product, or any Smith & Wesson product modified by you in the first instance that bears any mark owned by Smith & Wesson.

If we do not hear from you by January 5, 2015, Smith & Wesson will pursue its rights and remedies to the fullest extent permitted by law without further notice to you.

The four companies attacked in this letter have done a lot to help make the M&P line of pistols a product that serious shooters might consider buying and using. Building the “Dream Gun” off of an M&P was a honor that Smith & Wesson should have bragged about.

Instead, they offer…. this.

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I only see one way out of this for Smith & Wesson, and it involves the rhetorical defenestration and termination of Ballard Spahr, effective immediately.

The firearms industry and shooters have long memories for those who betray them. Smith & Wesson had better rectify this situation quickly, or they’re going to find themselves the pariahs of the industry once again.


Author: Bob Owens Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com. He is an alumnus of Gunsite Academy, is an instructor with 

 

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This is an interesting question!

 WHEN does a custom modification to a device become a different device?

If the original manufacturer deems the modifications to be unsafe, or contrary to the OEM's standards, can they require the modifier to remove the OEM's name and logo? 

If the modifications void the OEM's warranty, can the OEM demand their logo be removed?

Can they demand that something like "This ____ has been modified by ______ Corp. and these modifications have voided the original warranty"

 

 What IS the point of no return to OEM specs? Other than warranty and liability issues, does it matter?

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(Excuse me if my timeline of products is off, just the major points that stick out in my memory)

 

I haven't been a fan of S&W since they bowed down to Clinton. Somehow they managed to step-up, change management, and do what was necessary to right their wrong.

Then they started making 1911's... and somehow managed to screw THAT up. Excuse my ignorance but the only other company that I've seen able to do that on a MASS level was AMT. So they take care of that issue.

Then they stick their dick in a meat grinder with the Sigma, and have issues with "copying Glock". So they fix that and move along again.

They come out with great products like the 500, and the M&P series (with a competitive price I might add). I finally break down and get a M&P Shield, thinking they've cleaned up their act, and this happens.

The whole thing is a let down. I can't say what I'd do in their shoes, but they HAVE to know this is bad for business.

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And with a quickness....

S&W CEO does a 180' and starts trying to put out the fire burning his ass.

http://bearingarms.com/smith-wesson-fully-understand-dream-gun-project-apologizes/

Edited by ChileRelleno
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(Excuse me if my timeline of products is off, just the major points that stick out in my memory)

 

I haven't been a fan of S&W since they bowed down to Clinton. Somehow they managed to step-up, change management, and do what was necessary to right their wrong.

Then they started making 1911's... and somehow managed to screw THAT up. Excuse my ignorance but the only other company that I've seen able to do that on a MASS level was AMT. So they take care of that issue.

Then they stick their dick in a meat grinder with the Sigma, and have issues with "copying Glock". So they fix that and move along again.

They come out with great products like the 500, and the M&P series (with a competitive price I might add). I finally break down and get a M&P Shield, thinking they've cleaned up their act, and this happens.

The whole thing is a let down. I can't say what I'd do in their shoes, but they HAVE to know this is bad for business.

Yep. Sturm Ruger as well.

http://www.businessinsider.com/smith-and-wesson-almost-went-out-of-business-trying-to-do-the-right-thing-2013-1

http://www.thegunzone.com/rkba/papabill.html

Edited by yakdung
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I'd loved to have heard the personal conversation between Pete Brownell (Brownells CEO)& James Debney (S&W CEO).

 

I'm betting some pointy headed, office schmuck, bean counting, liberal lawyer without a clue about the gun industry, at either S&W and/or their law firm stuck their pecker out just a little too far without checking first.

And you know that person(s) is probably an unemployed eunuch by now.

Edited by ChileRelleno
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