In February, Leupold & Stevens sued Bushnell Inc. in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon for infringement of Leupold’s U.S. Patent No. 7,654,029 relating to its True Ballistic Range® technology for laser rangefinders. Bushnell Inc. subsequently sued Leupold & Stevens in Kansas for patent infringement. In its answer to Bushnell’s complaint, Leupold denied any infringement. So what, pray tell, were they talking about? chuckhawks.com explains Leupold’s system (not that I understand) . . .
The Leupold RX-III rangefinder that I reviewed for Guns and Shooting Online includes among its many features a mode that automatically compensates for up and down angle shots. Leupold calls this “true ballistic range” and you can set the RX-III’s main readout to display the horizontal distance to the target, which is the distance you need to worry about in terms of trajectory. In the lower left corner of the display it also tells you the angle at which your are ranging and the line of sight range from your position to the target.
For example, if I range the top of a tall fir tree some distance from my house the line of sight range is 151 yards and the angle is 19 degrees of elevation, while the horizontal range–the true ballistic range–is only 130 yards. It is a neat rangefinder and a little time spent with one drives home the reality that, in terms of bullet trajectory, it is the horizontal, not the line of sight, range that matters.
So anyway, Leupold & Stevens and Bushnell Inc.have agreed to dismiss the lawsuits “as part of a confidential settlement amicably resolving the infringement claims.” In other words, an indeterminate amount of money changed hands. Under the terms of the agreement, neither company will be required to discontinue the sale of any of its products identified in the suits.
According to Andy York, Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Technology at Leupold & Stevens: “Leupold & Stevens is happy with the settlement and looks forward to refocusing its energies on R&D and important new product developments.”
Such as . . . a scope for TTAG’s recently received test and evaluation ArmaLite AR-10.
