Springfield Armory

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Springfield Responds To SIG’s Patent Suit

May 12, 2021 by

Springfield Armory released a statement responding to the patent infringement suit brought by SIG Sauer. They assert it is frivolous, without merit, and they will fight it in court.

From their release as published in The Outdoor Wire:

Sig Sauer, Inc. has alleged in a federal court complaint that Springfield Armory’s Hellcat® magazines infringe two patents Sig owns. However, Springfield Armory is steadfast in its conviction that those claims are without merit. The innovative design of the Hellcat® magazine is our own and works only with the Hellcat®. The superior design of the Hellcat® magazine is able to hold more rounds in an overall smaller magazine. Springfield Armory’s Hellcat® magazine was independently awarded several patents of its own and has received numerous industry recognitions.

“We feel that these claims are frivolously litigious in nature and designed to thin out the competition in an increasingly crowded firearms market,” explains Springfield Armory President Steve McKelvain. “Springfield Armory will vigorously defend its right to produce the class-leading patented Hellcat® handgun and magazines for our loyal customers––past, present and future.”

I’m sure the rest of the firearms industry will be watching this with interest.

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SIG Sues Springfield For Patent Infringement

May 11, 2021 by

SIG Sauer announced that they filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Springfield Armory yesterday. They allege that the magazines for the Springfield Hellcat infringe upon the patented design of the SIG P365 magazine.

From the complaint filed by SIG, it appears that this controversy has been brewing since December 2019. That was when SIG says they notified Springfield of a violation of one of their two patents on the magazines.

The complaint refers to the magazines in question as the “Accused Products”:

The Accused Products directly, jointly, indirectly, and/or willfully infringe one or more claims in the following SIG SAUER Patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 10,480,880 (“the’880 patent”) and 10, 962,315 (“the’315 patent”) (collectively, the “Asserted Patents”). Springfield Armory markets the Accused Products as being competitive to SIG SAUER’s P365 pistol magazines (the “P365 magazines”).

The case is filed in the US District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Rockford Division. SIG is seeking a declaration of patent infringement, a permanent injunction, and appropriate monetary damages.

Ron Cohen, President and CEO of SIG Sauer, Inc., had this to say:

“When the SIG SAUER P365 was introduced it took the market by storm as the most innovative high-capacity, micro-compact pistol to be introduced due to its magazine capacity, and quickly became one of the top selling handguns in the market due to this unprecedented innovation.  SIG is not a litigious company, but given the extent of infringement by Springfield, SIG has a responsibility to protect both our intellectual property and the significant investment we make to develop our innovative products.  As a company we are proud to yield more than 100 patents worldwide, with more than 40 patent applications currently pending, and we will protect the extensive research and design that goes into developing these patents rigorously.”

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I don’t have a dog in this fight as I don’t own either of these handguns.

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A 5.56 FAL?

November 20, 2019 by 2 Comments

Yes, there really was a FAL in 5.56×45. It was the SAR-4800 made by Imbel in Brazil and imported by Springfield Armory. According to Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons, only about 700 were imported into the United States and these came with those ugly post-ban thumbhole stocks.

He discusses the history of it while examining one that was converted to the FAL Para configuration. While it probably is a bit heavy, it is still pretty cool.

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What Does It Say When Even Hi-Point Drops You As A Customer?

May 9, 2018 by 2 Comments

Today’s Shooting Wire contained a release from MKS Supply, LLC saying they would no longer do business with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its Field and Stream subsidiary. MKS Supply is the exclusive distributor for Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing.

In recent months, Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, have shown themselves, in our opinion, to be no friend of Americans’ Second Amendment. We believe that refusing to sell long guns to adults under age 21, while many young adults in our military are not similarly restricted, is wrong. We believe that villainizing modern sporting rifles in response to pressure from uninformed, anti-gun voices is wrong. We believe that hiring lobbyists to oppose American citizens’ freedoms secured by the Second Amendment is wrong. Dick’s Sporting Goods and Field & Stream, in purportedly doing all of these things, have demonstrated that they do not share our values.

MKS Supply, Hi-Point Firearms and Inland Manufacturing are standing by the American people by refusing any further sales to Dick’s Sporting Goods & Field & Stream. We are proud of our products, we are proud of our customers, and we are especially proud of the freedoms secured by our great U.S. Constitution. We are committed to all three.

As I reported last week, Springfield Armory severed their ties with Dick’s and the NSSF had expelled them from membership.

This afternoon it was announced that Mossberg was refusing any future orders and evaluating their current contractual agreements with Dick’s and Field and Stream.

O.F. Mossberg & Sons, Inc., a leading American firearms manufacturer, announced today its decision to discontinue selling products to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring of gun control lobbyists in April 2018.

Effective immediately, O.F. Mossberg & Sons will not accept any future orders from Dick’s Sporting Goods or Field & Stream, and is in the process of evaluating current contractual agreements.

“It has come to our attention that Dick’s Sporting Goods recently hired lobbyists on Capitol Hill to promote additional gun control.” said Iver Mossberg, Chief Executive Officer of O.F. Mossberg & Sons. “Make no mistake, Mossberg is a staunch supporter of the U.S. Constitution and our Second Amendment rights, and we fully disagree with Dick’s Sporting Goods’ recent anti-Second Amendment actions.”

Consumers are urged to visit one of the thousands of pro-Second Amendment firearm retailers to make their purchases of Mossberg and Maverick® firearms. Firearm retailers can be found through the Mossberg Dealer Locator by visiting http://www.mossberg.com/dealers/.

Dick’s might not be hurt by this but Field and Stream is going to miss both Springfield and Mossberg. The average Field and Stream store devotes about one-third of its overall space to hunting and shooting. A few more of these announcements and they can kiss the hunting and shooting business goodbye.

Finally, when even a low-end producer like Hi-Point wants nothing to do with you, it says you suck and big time.

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Making Amends?

May 4, 2017 by 1 Comment

The other controversy that seemed to hang over the NRA Annual Meeting was the report that the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association had gone neutral on an anti-gun bill in the Illinois General Assembly. The bill would add state oversight and licensing to gun dealers and manufacturers in addition to Federal oversight from BATFE. In exchange for going neutral on the bill, manufacturers were dropped from the bill which then passed the Illinois Senate. The vote there was 30-21 on the day before the Annual Meeting got started.

According to press releases sent out on Monday, there were unaware of what their lobbyist was doing. It got worse when it was reported that IFMA had made contributions to anti-gun politicians who used that money to defeat pro-gun candidates.

Both Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms evidently recognized the PR nightmare was getting worse and announced their resignations from IFMA. They obviously were determined not to be the next Smith & Wesson circa Year 2000.

Last night I received multiple emails from Springfield Armory asking people to contact their Illinois state representative to vote against SB 1657. I see this as an excellent move on Springfield Armory’s part. They are finally taking a pro-active stand. In case the link didn’t come through below, it is here.

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Dear John,
The 2nd Amendment urgently needs your help in Illinois!
The
Illinois House of Representatives may consider Senate Bill 1657,
legislation that could put state gun dealers out of business, at any
time!

It is imperative you share this with friends and family living in Illinois and strongly urge them to OPPOSE SB 1657!

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SB
1657 would create onerous mandatory regulations, fees potentially in
the thousands of dollars and excessive amounts of red tape that would
almost assuredly force the closure of many firearm dealers, and prevent
prospective owners from opening new ones.  The federal Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) already licenses and
closely monitors all federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs) and
strictly enforces any violation of federal law.
SB 1657 goes far beyond federal law and is designed to shut down as many FFLs as possible.
Again,
please click the “Take Action” button above to contact your state
Representative and urge them to strongly oppose SB 1657!  Stay tuned to www.nraila.org for further updates on this bill.