Litepanels Initiates Legal Action to Stop Most LED fixtures from entering the United

[Dave Blackham]

Vitec group own, amongst others, "O Connor" "Sachtler" "Vinten" "Anton Bauer" "Autoscript" "Petrol" "Manfrotto" "Gitzo" "Lastolite" "Kata"


http://www.vitecgroup.com/OurBusinesses.aspx

I dont like the flavour of this, I don't see any justification or fairness about it. So as of now Vitec products are off my prefered products list. Im also upset this is a UK company behind this action.

 

[Niko Pueringer]

I'll be telling everyone to stay away from Vitec subsidiaries from now on...

 

[Richard Andrewski]

Hi everyone, I know I promised an update. What we are doing is putting together a website that will have a much more detailed explanation than I can write here. Kind of a letter to the industry to let them know what's happening and where we are now. You should also know that most of the 14 companies have made agreements with Litepanels at this point (or some just didn't show or said they wouldn't market in the USA and therefore opted out of the proceedings). The only two that haven't signed agreements are Cool Lights USA and Flolight. So its not completely over as of now. There are companies still defending against it in other words.

The ruling from the ITC was confidential so I can't say much at this point till its "public" version comes out. We are confused as to how Litepanels can be issuing press releases when the ruling is confidential.

 

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Frankly speaking I have no idea about this issue and I wonder even after winning this case how Litepanels can implement it. The competitors can just brand the lights with same quality differently and people can continue to buy it. A consumer cannot be prevented from using the light for any purpose. The way you can't prevent an ipad from being used as a light source, similarly your lights branded differently can beat this ban.

 

[Michael Panfeld]

Frankly speaking I have no idea about this issue and I wonder even after winning this case how Litepanels can implement it. The competitors can just brand the lights with same quality differently and people can continue to buy it. A consumer cannot be prevented from using the light for any purpose. The way you can't prevent an ipad from being used as a light source, similarly your lights branded differently can beat this ban.

Litepanels got a general exclusion order. That means a judge has ordered the U.S. Customs Service (now called CBP) to seize these LED lights at the border (or port, or airfield). Customs does not care about the brand (unless you are a company who has made a licensing agreement with Litepanels). Moreover, attempts to sneak around this, such as repurposing or rebranding can be considered Custom's fraud and, may result in both civil penalties, as well as jail, not to mention a 100% loss on the money you paid to buy the LED lights (if they are seized).