no, thats not SP vs Dye. The SP and dye case deals with the patent that Dye legaly owns on spool valve and fuse bolt designs. To my knowledge this is how it happened. When Dye bought the patent for the matrix, they bought the patent for the spool valve design that came with it. when they made the dm4, they also patented the fuse bolt design as well. the 03 shocker with its bolt appears to be infringing on the patent owned by Dye
http://furby.*******************/DYEvsSP.pdf . Note also that this document states that there could be more infringing properties that smart parts owns, which probably means the ion is an issue as well.
Many seem to think Dye had this in waiting while SP was going crazy with all the lawsuits a year or so ago. So now, the majority of smart parts guns (shocker and ion) fall under this lawsuit and with all the sales theyve generated, they could be in big trouble if Dye wins. Royalties up the butt, and nobody is going to feel sorry since SP started this suing mess in the first place and they did it very sneakily (possibly illegally) with the whole expanding patent thing. On the other hand, if Dye loses the lawsuit, something along the lines of WDP's reprogramable board lawsuit with SP will happen. Its anyone's guess.
So, what it boils down to is this: the owners of the matrix patent sold the patent to dye, along with the spool valve design of the gun. Dye has to prove that the ion, shocker, and shocker turbo style markers are in violation of that patent with their bolt designs. Dye legally owns the patent, so it comes down whether the bolt operation of the SP markers are similar enough that it infringes on Dye's patent.
To my knowledge, this doesnt mean dye has rights on EVERY spool valve marker, but ones that operate close enough to the original patent. This means future spool valve markers that operate in a different enough fashion will NOT be affected.
However, recently on MO (matrixowner.com) one of the original designers of the matrix was approached by both sides (SP and Dye). Dye offered the designers legal assistance if it came to that, and SP wanted their information to see if they could get the patent thrown out. Since the trials still going on, we don't know whats happened, but hopefully they stuck it to smart parts.
hope that helps
