03-26-2014, 06:36 PM
I have been sitting back awhile taking in all these discussions. So here's my two cents worth. I believe what the real topic here is ethics. Bill Alexander with help from Arne, Lapua etc. created the 6.5 Grendel. He had the forethought to trademark his creation so as to prevent bastardization of its design. Now it has been officially standardized by being accepted and defined by SAMMI. Anyone who is in business has the right to create and modify to their hearts content any product. That's the American way. If they feel they can produce a better mousetrap go for it. What I have a problem with is simple ethics. If you make a modification to something that has been officially standardized you no longer have the right to call your modification by the name of the original to imply compliance. Either you comply or you don't. You can however state that your modification is compatible but it must have a different name. Companies and individuals sue in court all the time for this abuse and they win on both ethical and legal grounds. My feeling is that this whole issue may be from some sort of bad blood, or competitive drive between individuals that are playing in this game. Remember there were licensing issues during the birth of this round. Also don't forget the free advertising that this situation is generating. You know the old advertiser's slogan publicity either good or bad doesn't matter because it's all good in the end. There could even be other issues that caused this mess that we will never know and really don't care about. What I can't stand is we the little people are the ones getting hurt by this. We now have to be suspect of products we buy because we don't know which side of this battle any manufacturer truly is on. I just wish people would go back to the simple moral and ethical behavior we came to expect of each other. But I digress. What should happen is simple, SAMMI and Bill should actively sue anyone who is claiming to make 6.5 Grendel and is really making a variant and not labeling it as a variant. I have no problem with someone thinking they can do it better or fill a need that the original doesn't. What problem I do have is their misrepresenting their new idea as the old idea. If a gunsmith wants to custom chamber a barrel for a customer mark the barrel 6.5 Grendel modified. If a manufacturer wants to make a different product guess what, you don't use the Grendel name in any way shape or form. Les Baer did it right. He is a man I can still have respect for. Those that break the rules for whatever reason have lost it.