Trijicon Sues Holosun To Prevent Import And Sale Of Optics
BY Herschel Smith
6 years, 3 months ago
A Michigan weapons maker is seeking to halt imports of what it says are cheap Chinese knockoffs of its battery-powered pistol sights.
Trijicon Inc. filed a patent complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission on July 29, saying that Holosun Technologies Inc., of Los Angeles County, is working with a manufacturer in China to sell “red dot” sights that replicate features on which Trijicon has held a patent since 2013.
While the Trump administration has made intellectual property protection a key plank of its policy towards China, patent cases such as Trijicon’s are subject to detailed legal procedures. Ben Langlotz, a gun patent attorney with Langlotz Patent & Trademark Works LLC not working on the case, said there are multiple patents on red-dot sights, spanning a variety of characteristics.
Trijicon claims its sights have housing with increased durability and easier use. The technology is used in Trijicon’s Specialized Reflex Optic, which has a recommended retail price of $749. The most expensive Holosun sight referenced in the complaint goes for about $471, its website shows.
Trijicon, whose biggest source of revenue last year was from federal law enforcement agencies, said in its complaint said that its sights are used by hunters in competitions and for target shooting. The market for guns and related products has boomed amid rising social unrest in the U.S. this year.
Trijicon also filed a mirror suit in federal court in California, but that’s likely to be on hold until the ITC case is done. Agency investigations typically take 15-18 months, while a typical patent case in district court lasts two to five years.
I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, if Holosun did in fact steal trade secrets or infringe on patents, they deserve to be shut down in the U.S. Theft of intellectual property harms not only investors, but workers as well. It has gone on for far too long and should be stopped.
I hope the facts are carefully presented and the judge circumspect. Because on the other hand, I despise that Trijicon’s main customer is law enforcement and not the general public.
I also despise the fact that Trijicon is so expensive, and for that reason alone I’ll probably never have a Trijicon scope or sight (Here, to compete with the Trijicon RMR, I hope that Vortex can come up with a pistol red dot sight better than 3 MOA and do better on price point). Competition is as sacred as intellectual property rights. Theft should not be tolerated, but competition should be encouraged. It would seem to me that the notion that a patent can hold property rights to dots, reticles and magnification is absurd.
So let’s say that Holosun had stolen holographic sight technology from EOTech, that would be a clear violation of law. To the best of my knowledge, only EOTech so far can make claim to holographic sights. Correct me if I’m wrong about this.
Here is the California docket and complaint, and here is the patent in question.
@ Herschel Smith Re: “I hope the facts are carefully presented and the judge circumspect. Because on the other hand, I despise that Trijicon’s main customer is law enforcement and not the general public.” “I also despise the fact that Trijicon is so expensive, and for that reason alone I’ll probably never have a Trijicon scope or sight (Here, to compete with the Trijicon RMR, I hope that Vortex can come up with a pistol red dot sight better than 3 MOA and do better on price point). Competition is as sacred as intellectual property rights.” Given those sentiments, perhaps you’ll find my experience with Trijicon products to be of interest. A friend who was retired U.S. Army special forces (he was at that time my gunsmith) recommended Trijicon to me, and I also knew about them from my time working in the retail FA industry, as well as reading industry publications and so forth. Long story short, I had the coin at the time, and an ACOG down at the local Cabela’s caught my eye, so I bought a new TA11H-G 3.5×35 with green horseshoe 5.56/.223 BDC. Thereby hangs an interesting tale… First, to the pros: Whatever else may be said about them, ACOGs are built like tanks and are legendary for their ability to take punishment in the field and still work. Truly “soldier proof” (Marines, too, ask your son). Trijicon designed the ACOG to have as few moving parts as possible, in order to aid durability. The optic was of fixed 3.5x magnification, without any sort of diopter adjustment or fine focus. Worked OK for me, but that might be an issue for some. The optic was designed for use with 5.56/.223-caliber AR-pattern rifles/carbines, with a BDC graduated in meters out to 1,000m. The green center dot inside the green horseshoe is designed to be zeroed at 100m with M855 62-grain ammunition. The reticle was/is also available in red. Illumination via a fiber-optic photo-collection tube during daylight hours, and via a tritium insert during the hours of darkness. The ACOG was designed to be NVG-compatible. These models need no batteries (there are now ACOGs and other similar optics in their line which are battery-powered). The ACOG was designed around the Bindon aiming concept, usually summarized as “shooting with both eyes open.” 3.5x to 4x magnification being strong-enough for medium-long-range use but still precise-enough for close range/CQB. Some operators/users add a reflex red-dot 1x sight atop their ACOG expressly for CQB use. Properly set-up and used, there is little doubt that the ACOG works – and works well. A brief account illustrates the point. During the mid-2000s, complaints against the U.S. military began coming into the International Red Cross and other agencies alleging war crimes, i.e., specifically that U.S. Army and Marine occupation forces in Iraq were killing insurgents execution-style with head-shots. In due course, these complaints and charges were acted upon by the military, which investigated these claims, which were found to be groundless. What had actually… Read more »
On Trijicon and its marketing focus:
For years back in the 70’s, Colt took its AR 15 Rifles off the market for civilian sales because
it was catering to military and police markets only and had gone PC before anyone knew what that was. I was no fan of the rifle but found Colt’s arrogance so irritating that I never purchased a Colt product for all these years. That market eventually weakened for Colt and that is why (I think in the 90’s) it went bankrupt. Yes, I do hold grudges for a long time.
It’s an obviously BS “it’s a small open red dot sight, but with buttons on the side!” design patent that shouldn’t have been granted.
They are not suing Sig for their nearly identical made in China sights.
Also, Vortex has the UH-1 Gen 1 & new Gen 2 holographic sights, so EOtech isn’t the only company producing them.
Thanks for the insight on the ACOG Georgiaboy61. I also have satisfaction with PA optics.
I found it interesting like Ratus mentioned that Holosun is the only one targeted out of the plethora of red dot manufacturers.
Georgiaboy61 gets my applause.
The Trijicon has always been out of my price range. The one time I was able to afford one, I had 3 teenaged girls living in the house. It was when someone was selling surplus ACOG’s on ebay. The surplus ACOGs had the Bible verse on the side of them that some atheist made a big thing out of and the DoD got rid of them. I believe they were selling for a “Buy it now” of $300, back then.
No matter what someone thinks of them, they are entitled to their intellectual property, protected by patent.
I had also heard the exact same story about war crimes accusations Georgiaboy61 related above. The context I heard it in was in relation to our troops in Bosnia.
For myself, I’ve been quite pleased with Burris and Primary Arms products. Haven’t been able to break them, yet. Don’t plan on breaking them, either, but stuff happens.
per the comment by John regarding Colt….. I will never purchase a Colt product as they were the sobs supplying only the North back in the War of Northern Aggression…..grudge …. you bet!
Soapweed, appreciate you man, but Smith & Wesson was right there with them, their little .22 short revolvers riding in the vest pocket of many northern soldiers.
After talking with a supervisor who fought overseas he convinced me to go with the Acog. Local shops tried to sell cheap Chinese knock-offs, but my coworker said you have to get the genuine thing.
Had to travel a little bit to find a authorized dealer. The young man behind the counter was also a returning vet, very helpful and supplied a wealth of information. The Acog was a sturdy little tank and the glass was very clear. However as mentioned the eye relief wasn’t very forgiving. The older Acogs had a rudimentary site on the top of them for close-in work. The salesperson told me that most soldiers just looked over the top of their ACOG to get a basic aim for close distances.
The newer a Acogs now come with the ability to mount a micro dot on top of them. This set the price close to $2,000 !!! The young vet told me Acogs are great for fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan however if you were going to be doing close-in work EOTech would suit one better. Throw in a magnifier and you have the best of both worlds at half the price and still have a quality optic.
Was also shopping for a 308 optic and was leaning towards a Leupold. Once again after half an hour of discussion and comparison now the proud owner of a new Vortex scope. When laying out that kind of cash it’s best to seek the advice of an expert and not just some fat loser sitting behind the counter at the local gun shop.
Have no problem buying American Products and paying for quality, but if a company’s only interested in military contracts and turns their nose up at civilian purchases ? Have a nice day. I’ll buy from your competitor
Optics is a crazy market with obscene markups. I’ve seen some optics marked up 100% over dealer pricing. (Suggested retail). I could never get an ACOG to work for me. Went through plenty. Target acquisition sucks, at least for me. I have a couple AR’s in 300 black one of which is wearing a 2 MOA dot Holosun. The other a Trijicon MRO. The MRO retails real close to $600.00. The Holosun retail about $120.00. I actually like the Holosun a little better. Plus the damn things got like 55,000 hour battery life.
Trijicon does have an extremely underrated optic. Their Accupoint in 3 by 9 by 40 with the Mil Dot reticle is a bad ass piece of glass for the 600 yard crowd. Super clear and fairly inexpensive. Plus the tritium gives the scope excellent low light performance.