If you thought Jar Jar Binks was the craziest George Lucas could get, hang on to your midichlorians. He’s topped it with a cease and desist letter sent to Wicked Lasers Inc. for having the audacity to sell the most powerful laser available to consumers, with a hilt that he thinks looks like a Star Wars lightsaber.
If you look at the product itself, the resemblance is not even close to a light saber. The company, Wicked Lasers, has been selling similar products for over seven years without any legal repercussions, nor any intention of copying the Star Wars franchise.
The specific charge is that the hilt of the Pro Arctic laser, manufactured to function as a powerful laser, resembles too much the hilt of the light sabers used in the Star Wars franchise. Here are a couple of pictures of the hilts of the “weapons” in question – you decide for yourself, but our vote swings towards “Jar Jar Crazy”. To view even more licensed Star Wars lightsaber hilts, none of which come close to resembling the Pro Arctic Spyder III Wicked Laser, check this assortment at Thinkgeek.
Perhaps the most amusing refutation of the Wicked Laser’s intentions to be anything like something from the Star Wars franchise comes directly from the company’s press release on the topic:
“While press or customers may have coined the nickname Lightsaber when talking about the product, Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers, has never compared this or any of his products to the Jedi weapon wielded by Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader — not to mention the other obvious differences between the two products (e.g. PAS3 is 1 watt peak output power while Lightsaber is1 billion watts peak output power; PAS3 has non adjustable infinite length beam while Lightsaber has adjustable finite length blade; PAS3 is real while the Lightsaber is imaginary, and so forth).”
-Company Press Release
Support for Wicked Lasers is being shown in overwhelming numbers through over one thousand user comments on CNN’s take on the story at CNN.com.
Wicked Laser has responded to initial reports of the dangerous nature of the product by adding a safety lens which reduces the power of the laser by 80% unless removed, and a lock which keeps the laser from being accidentally turned on.
Correction: While Wicked Lasers does manufacture laser pointers, the model in question is not a laser pointer, but rather a personal portable laser. The error has been corrected.
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