George Lucas Gets Crazier With Cease and Desist Letter Against Wicked Lasers

Actually that looks amazingly like a lightsaber….. but whatever.

I’m convinced Lucas lost his marbles years ago. Right around the time he decided parsecs were a unit of time.

Talk about missing the real story…

This laser has gotten a lot of attention recently because it is advertised as being powerful enough to cause significant eye damage in a range of scenarios including looking at the scattered reflection when pointed at a white wall. Yes, the company says all the right things about how dangerous they are, but a lot of the attention on this laser is regarding the potential for accidental or purposeful misuse resulting in injury and how easy it is to buy it, not to mention the reasonable price of $200.

So Lucasfilm hears about this new laser because the public is referring to it as a lightsaber, if even humorously, and Lucasfilm doesn’t want any confusion or association in the marketplace with what they view as a potentially dangerous product, as stated in their letter.

Does it look like a particular lightsaber used in a movie? To me, not really. But it does look generically like a lightsaber. I have no idea whether they would win an intellectual property case against the company, but because of what this product is, I don’t blame them for trying to remove any association to their company.

Finally, there is an error in your story. You say that the product is manufactured to function as a powerful laser pointer. In fact they expressly never use the term “pointer”. Lasers intended for use as pointing devices are limited to 5mW. This device is a class IV laser rated at 1W compared to 5mW (200x more powerful?) and should under no circumstances be used to direct an audience’s eyesight to the termination point.

…Could it be that the laser’s attractive, entertainment themed styling gave you the wrong impression about it’s use?

I suppose I can see where he’s coming from. They are *similar* but different enough (I think) to not be confused with one another. I suppose the Wicked Lasers one does have that typical sci-fi painting/colouring style to it – matt gun grey with dry-brushing of black – but this is by no means specific to Star Wars.

Unfortunately by the nature of the product, of course its going to be put into the same basket as a light saber, but as the Wicked Lasers CEO himself said, there are obvious differences:

“PAS3 is real while the Lightsaber is imaginary…”

Jar Jar Crazy indeed.

@Tardyharbinger See story correction – thanks for pointing that out!

We have a half a year of good lightsaber fighting under our belts (with kids) and I can say that the extension mechanism and the translucent cylinders work reliably and are stronger than I expected. The electronics, however, went off-and-on within the first few weeks of use