LaRue Tactical on the lawsuit with A.R.M.S

Steve Johnson
by Steve Johnson

Not long ago I blogged about A.R.M.S having won a lawsuit against Troy and jdun1911 mentioned in the comments that they were also involved in a lawsuit against LaRue Tactical. Mark LaRue posted this open letter at AR15.com …

Guys,

As some of you know, we are under litigation attack by A.R.M.S. (Dick Swan) for using the numerals 1 and 7 in our LT-170 mount part number. He filed for and last spring outrageously got a trademark on “#17″ and then he sued us. IIRC, he also trademarked 7.62, 5.56, 50BMG, etc., etc.

I’m more than a little perturbed.

One of his interrogatories (sic) is what evidence I have of soldiers ever having an A.R.M.S. mount fail on them. Ask and ye shall receive.

I know a gent that says that roughly 20% of the A.R.M.S. mounts have to be replaced before he can run the guys in his sniper course. Says they come in flopping in one way or the other, levers loose, roll pins shot, whatever. And these are the ones that are left of the ones that haven’t already been replaced.

I have replaced numerous busted A.R.M.S. units in the past, and have heard more stories than I can count … the gist of one story – “busted levers on square ranges crunching under the boots of trainees” …

So, I am officially offering to replace/exchange any in-op/broken A.R.M.S. mounts for the LaRue product that best fits as a replacement.

I’ll do it even at the unit level. If your team has a bucket full of dead A.R.M.S. mounts of any sort laying around, then put them to good use. I am aware that due to NSN numbers, many are the failed units are likely sh*tcanned and a replacement bought (with taxpayer money). Either way, I don’t care how many … besides, it won’t be nothing compared to the attorney bills we are incurring weekly.

I do ask that some sort of note be written that says what the problem is, i.e. broken levers, loosened roll pins, stripped-out threads, etc.

Let me know about any and all A.R.M.S failures you know about … even if you threw them away, no worries, please let me know about it here.

We may have to spend $100,000 dollars to fend off this attack, and that’s money we can’t buy equipment with, money we can’t hire more folks with, money shot to hell.

Any help from you guys will be much appreciated.

v/r

Mark LaRue

Obviously this is only from the point of view of LaRue Tactical, but I still thought it was worth posting.

UPDATE: This case was settled out of course in December, 2011. LaRue has purchased a license from ARMS.

(West Bridgewater, MA) – The matter of Atlantic Research Marketing Systems, Inc. v Austin Precision Products, Inc. d/b/a LaRue Tactical, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Civil Action No. 1:09-cv-10034(DPW), was settled and dismissed with prejudice. LaRue Tactical has taken a fully paid up, royalty free license under U.S. Trademark Registration Nos. 3,466,163 and 3,478,909.

Many thanks to Kevin for emailing me the link.

Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!

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  • RoadDawg RoadDawg on Jun 10, 2012

    I had a A.R.M.S. #4 FN FAL Mount, Paratrooper Model. Every time I attempted to tighten the side plate screws they would strip out. If I didn't crank them down the mount would come loose when the weapon was fired. Cost me a "First" in a Three Gun match a while back.

    In all fairness they replaced the screws and sideplate twice. After that it was just not worth the hassel. A true piece of crap.

  • Scope Mount Guy Scope Mount Guy on Jul 06, 2013

    would love to see a follow up

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