FirstSpear, LLC is pleased to announce that on November 22, 2019, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“PTAB”) of the United States Patent & Trademark Office rejected Crye Precision, LLC’s petitions challenging the validity of FirstSpear’s U.S. Patents related to FirstSpear’s innovations in laser-cut and laser-fused personal protective equipment (PPE) and load bearing equipment (LBE). FirstSpear’s patented technology is already in use in products purchased by and widely used by US Special Operations, the US Army, the US Marine Corps, the Department of Justice, and many of our NATO allies. The decisions of the PTAB uphold the validity of FirstSpear’s patents and find that Crye’s petitions failed to establish any reasonable likelihood of unpatentability of any of the claims of the FirstSpear patents. The decisions dismiss both of Crye’s inter partes review (IPR) petitions and reject all of Crye’s arguments attacking FirstSpear’s patents. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,974,379 and 9,565,922).

Crye filed the petitions in June 2019, in an apparent attempt to gain leverage over FirstSpear in patent litigation pending in the U.S. District Court in St. Louis in which Crye claimed that some of FirstSpear’s products infringe their U.S. Patent 9,173,436. The recent decisions from the PTAB clearly demonstrate what the industry has understood for years: FirstSpear pioneered and perfected many game-changing products developed around laser cut / laser fused technology, including FirstSpear’s well-established 6/12 line of vest platforms; and FirstSpear’s technology was and is unique and was appropriately and properly granted U.S. patent protection.

“It is unfortunate that Crye has chosen to waste so much time and money threatening the industry, tying up the U.S. courts and patent office, and trying to take credit for the work of others,” said FirstSpear CEO & President Scott Carver. “However, we can now fully move forward assisting the U.S. government and our industry partners in the development and fielding of the next generation of improved lightweight individual equipment to the warfighters and first responders who need it.”

FirstSpear is grateful for the PTAB’s decision upholding the validity of its patents.

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