R.A.T.
Randall's Adventure & Training
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2004
- Messages
- 10,400
January 29, 2009
To all dealers, distributors, media contacts and customers of RAT Cutlery Company:
Important information about our new RC-5 that will be shipping in February!
As everyone already knows, the RAT Cutlery RC-5 was designed by military SERE instructors. Due to that we tagged the RC-5 with the nickname of SERE thinking that the mark SERE was in the public domain due to it being a military term. Just to make sure of this, we did a trademark search on the name before we engraved or started shipping this new knife. We found out the mark SERE is actually registered to a good friend of ours who owns Al Mar Knives (www.almarknives.com).
As most of you already know, we (RAT Cutlery) are in an intellectual property battle over our legal and common law trademark name (RAT), so we have a firm respect for intellectual property (IP) rights and do not wish to violate or step on anyone’s toes over IP that we do not own. With all that said, we are changing the name of the RC-5 SERE to RC-5 (leaving off SERE). We have also changed the RC SERE logo to remove the SERE from that logo. We ask that all of you please update your web sites and sales information with the new information found here: http://www.ratcutlery.com/rc-5.htm Please note that no specs or design attributes have been changed. Only the name tag of SERE has been removed to avoid any market confusion with Al Mar Knives. Furthermore, RAT is in the process of adding new survival items and kits to its lineup of products designed around our experience as survival instructors in the jungles of South America. This new branding of ES EE reflects our training better than the standard SERE mark (Escuela de Supervivencia, Evasion, Escape)
Our current catalog and fire kits (non-knife product) still reflect the use of the name RC-SERE but SERE will be removed on the next catalog printing and also removed from the next run of fire kits (see the updated logo at the web address above). We will also be marking through the name SERE on any catalog we send out until the new catalogs are printed. We ask that everyone (dealers, media, customers and individuals) refrain from referring to the RC-5 with the SERE tag to avoid any market confusion.
As a side note to all of this, after we realized our mistake we immediately called Gary Fadden of Al Mar Knives to apologize. We had a very good discussion about all of this and the industry in general. Gary has been a long-time friend of ours in the knife community and probably one of the most honorable people in this industry. His company also makes some of the best knives in the industry. We thank him for his understanding.
Regards,
Jeff Randall
To all dealers, distributors, media contacts and customers of RAT Cutlery Company:
Important information about our new RC-5 that will be shipping in February!
As everyone already knows, the RAT Cutlery RC-5 was designed by military SERE instructors. Due to that we tagged the RC-5 with the nickname of SERE thinking that the mark SERE was in the public domain due to it being a military term. Just to make sure of this, we did a trademark search on the name before we engraved or started shipping this new knife. We found out the mark SERE is actually registered to a good friend of ours who owns Al Mar Knives (www.almarknives.com).
As most of you already know, we (RAT Cutlery) are in an intellectual property battle over our legal and common law trademark name (RAT), so we have a firm respect for intellectual property (IP) rights and do not wish to violate or step on anyone’s toes over IP that we do not own. With all that said, we are changing the name of the RC-5 SERE to RC-5 (leaving off SERE). We have also changed the RC SERE logo to remove the SERE from that logo. We ask that all of you please update your web sites and sales information with the new information found here: http://www.ratcutlery.com/rc-5.htm Please note that no specs or design attributes have been changed. Only the name tag of SERE has been removed to avoid any market confusion with Al Mar Knives. Furthermore, RAT is in the process of adding new survival items and kits to its lineup of products designed around our experience as survival instructors in the jungles of South America. This new branding of ES EE reflects our training better than the standard SERE mark (Escuela de Supervivencia, Evasion, Escape)
Our current catalog and fire kits (non-knife product) still reflect the use of the name RC-SERE but SERE will be removed on the next catalog printing and also removed from the next run of fire kits (see the updated logo at the web address above). We will also be marking through the name SERE on any catalog we send out until the new catalogs are printed. We ask that everyone (dealers, media, customers and individuals) refrain from referring to the RC-5 with the SERE tag to avoid any market confusion.
As a side note to all of this, after we realized our mistake we immediately called Gary Fadden of Al Mar Knives to apologize. We had a very good discussion about all of this and the industry in general. Gary has been a long-time friend of ours in the knife community and probably one of the most honorable people in this industry. His company also makes some of the best knives in the industry. We thank him for his understanding.
Regards,
Jeff Randall
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How many of the knives had you already made with the SERE graphics, and how much of a process will it be to change them?
