An Indiana archery company that sued a prominent live action role-play (LARP) website will drop its claims that the website's owner infringed two patents on foam arrows.

John Jackson, founder of Global Archery, told Ars that he decided to drop his patent case against Larping.org owner Jordan Gwyther after analyzing a patent on the German-made iDV arrows that Gwyther sells.

The lawsuit isn't over, however—Jackson also sued Gwyther for allegedly infringing his trademark, for buying Google ads keyed to it, and for false advertising.

"After the dust has settled and our legal counsel has had time to analyze a translated copy of the German prior art reference provided to Global Archery by Mr. Gwyther’s counsel, Global Archery has decided to voluntarily dismiss the patent counts against Mr. Gwyther with prejudice," Jackson said in an e-mail. He continued:

Mr. Gwyther refused to provide us with a certified copy of the prior art reference he was relying on or to provide any detailed analysis to us as to why one or more of our patent claims were possibly invalid. All we were provided was an untranslated copy of what was purported to be a German patent covering the iDV arrow. As I am sure you can appreciate, it takes time to review and obtain opinions on the validity of patents from legal counsel. Our counsel has undertaken such an analysis at our request and this is why we have decided to voluntarily dismiss the patent counts from our complaint. However, Global Archery does not believe that all of the claims of its patents are invalid.

Earlier this week, online retailer Newegg's top lawyer Lee Cheng said his company will help Gwyther with his defense, providing advice and more than $10,000 in cash, as well as selling anti-patent-troll T-shirts on his behalf.

Jackson also pushed back against Cheng's suggestion that his behavior amounted to "patent trolling," noting that a troll doesn't practice the invention covered by the patents.

"Global Archery manufactures arrows and is a legitimate business," he wrote. "Further, this is the first time Global Archery has asserted its patents against anyone. As such, we believe that Mr. Cheng’s comments are unfounded and made without all of the facts."

Jackson also reiterated that he offered to settle the case with no payment and Gwyther refused the offer.

"Mr. Gwyther refused this offer because apparently he continues to want to use our registered trademark in connection with the sale of his arrows," Jackson said. "This is Global Archery’s real problem and what caused the situation to come about... I wonder how Newegg and Mr. Cheng would respond if we chose to use Newegg® in our marketing efforts."

Gwyther has told Ars that he found the conditions of the proposed settlement too egregious to abide by, as they include terms that would forbid him from speaking to Global Archery customers. In response to the news about the patent claims being dropped, Gwyther added that the prior art they found is hardly news—his lawyer showed it to Global Archery in October. (Global Archery said they needed a certified translation.)

"While I am pleased that Global Archery has finally agreed to drop the patent claims, this is clearly because of the public-relations pressure," Gwyther said in an email. "They showed no concern over the merits of the claims until this turned into an issue of public notice and concern. It seems that Global Archery did no investigation into the validity of these claims prior to filing them, or in response to my counsel’s letter identifying prior art in October. Instead they assert those claims with little or no thought about how that might impact my business."