#Counterfeit

Magazine and accessory manufacturer MagLULA has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com for alleged Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations stemming from the advertising and sale of counterfeit MagLULA, UpLULA and other products covered by registered trademark and copyright protections. The suit, dated December 12, 2019, alleges the unauthorized use of trademarks and copyrights by Amazon in connection with advertising, distribution, offering for sale and by other means listed below. Excerpts from the 79-page filing can be found below.

Where tactical trailing has been picking up steam for quite some time, those who treasure their tactical skills or want to be involved past the shooting stage have been opting for tactical medical training. With the plethora of combat-experienced medics discharging from the armed services and various EMTs, Paramedics, Nurses, and Doctors offering their knowledge, its easy to argue that tactical medical training is hitting yet another new high point.

In most industries having your products knocked-off is nothing new, the same is true for the firearms accessory market. Just recently we posted about fake UpLULA magazine loaders being sold on Amazon. Then there was that $2 million load of counterfeit Glock mags seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, they also seized a load of fake Blackhawk Holsters a few years back. There’s even been fake Magpul PMAGs out there.

A number of AR15s that have been turning up in Iraq appear to be counterfeit products but are in the markets and treated as legitimate production versions of the rifle companies the producers are seeking to counterfeit. Some of them are very small differences, only being distinguished by the wrong roll mark or incorrect engraving. Others are blatantly obvious through the combination of several companies on a single lower. As an example, the largest indication that we are seeing is an AR15 with a 14.5 inch barrel, Burst selector, and with both Colt markings above the serial number and FN Herstal markings above the selector switch. Although both companies have been making M4s and M4A1s for the U.S. Military, neither of these companies have ever actually combined forces and produced a joint rifle. We’ll post the glaring examples we have seen so far down below. There are far more examples that are borderline counterfeit, but I don’t want to post them because I just don’t have the in-depth Colt roll mark knowledge to be able to discern whether or not it is genuine.

Our friends over at Maglula sent some photos of the counterfeit loaders that have been purchased from Amazon directly. As before, the best thing you can do to avoid falling victim to the fake loaders is to buy from a reputable retailer that purchased their entire inventory from Maglula.

Our friends over at Maglula sent over a notification that their excellent loaders have been counterfeited. Below is the release they sent over, sadly we do not have any photos of a fake loader to show you. Your best defense is to buy from a quality retailer until the folks at Maglula can sort everything out.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged with protecting the United States from threats crossing international borders. Besides physical threats from terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons of mass destruction, the men and women in blue protect American consumers and industry from intellectual property violations and counterfeit goods.