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BYE BYE SEALEGS??

Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: The Briny Bar
Forum Description: The place for general chat on saltwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=133579
Printed Date: 30 Mar 2024 at 12:05am


Topic: BYE BYE SEALEGS??
Posted By: pjc
Subject: BYE BYE SEALEGS??
Date Posted: 22 May 2020 at 6:51pm
Will they pay or liquidate?

https://boatingnz.co.nz/orion-and-smuggler-marine-awarded-costs/" rel="nofollow - https://boatingnz.co.nz/orion-and-smuggler-marine-awarded-costs



Following an almost four-year court battle, the High Court sealed an order for costs against Sealegs of around $500,000, to be paid to Orion and Smuggler Marine by May 26, 2020, or proceedings to liquidate Sealegs will commence.

Additionally, a combined damage claim of $11m is being filed against Sealegs. The damage claim arises from the injunction issued in December 2016, which prevented Smuggler, Stryda, Orion and other associated companies from manufacturing and selling amphibious craft.

The injunction was lifted in August 2019 when the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court’s earlier decision. It is anticipated that a date for hearing the damages claim will be granted before year’s end.

Smuggler Marine, Orion and Stryda expect to be back to full production with easing Covid 19 restrictions. All three companies wish to thank their loyal boating community supporters.



https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12262527" rel="nofollow - https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12262527



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Sex at 58.Lucky I live at 56



Replies:
Posted By: Reel Deal
Date Posted: 22 May 2020 at 8:05pm
what was sealegs thinking...amphibious boats were built before them and will be after. Sounds like they thought the deserved the market for them only...greed bit them me thinks. It will be great to see competition going gang busters as they are a great solution 

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The gods do not subtract from the allotted span of men's lives the hours spent on fishing - Assyrian Proverb


Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 22 May 2020 at 9:23pm
Your point makes sense, but trademark infringement type cases are never simple. The technicalities of registered design patents etc can be quite complicated.

this case involving DB and its successful trademark over the name "Radler" in NZ is a great example of where your theory of something having historic precedence didn't hold. Radler is a type of beer in many places overseas, but here, DB was allowed to trademark it.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5284136/DB-wins-its-battle-over-Radler-beer" rel="nofollow - http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5284136/DB-wins-its-battle-over-Radler-beer





Posted By: Bounty Hunter
Date Posted: 22 May 2020 at 10:48pm
i recall meeting one of the CEOs at Commando Boats in East Tamaki - they were building Sealegs hulls in the early days - the company wasnt worth **** and was cashflow negative at the time but had managed to secure funding just a few weeks earlier via the original NZX sharemarket listing - and here he was in a brand new bmw 760 - thats right - the v12 big banger.

bruce de baugh - commando owner - remarked to me on his departure - that he was considering making a claim on the bmw if he didnt start getting payment for work done for sealegs... 

amazing sealegs has continued to exist so long on other peoples money...


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No disintegrations!


Posted By: SaltyC
Date Posted: 23 May 2020 at 9:41am
The guy who created Sealegs certainly had enough cash to do it. It was the pet project of Maurice Bryham after he and Sharon Hunter sold their business, PC Direct, for megabucks in the 90's.

It was a bit like Allan Gibbs and his amphibous car initially, an idea that Bryham invested time and money into developing and that wasn't profitable for a very long time, but unlike Gibbs, Sealegs actually became commercially successful. 

He brought in David McKee Wright when he started producing the boats commercially,  he had managed PC Direct prior to the sale as well I think and maybe even afterwards for the new owners, the Bluestar Group. (memory not what it was!)

So there was more than"other peoples money" involved.


Bryham also invested in other companies, ExoNet was one I think.

FWIW, the other half of the pC Direct money, Sharon Hunter is  married to the mayor of Tauranga, Tenby Powell, and they used to own Hirepool as one of their investments


Posted By: whippersnappyr
Date Posted: 23 May 2020 at 12:18pm
I’m not so sure sealegs is exactly a success it it. It was losing money pretty consistently when it was listed 


Posted By: feeder
Date Posted: 25 May 2020 at 5:49pm
Patents are very hard to defend and they only last a pretty short time, copyright is much easier to defend, as long as you have all your paper work up to scratch and can prove you were ahead of the pack.

It irkes me a bit when you train up staff, they bugger off and and use your knowledge to go into opposition, which is one of the things that happened to Sealegs, and now Sealegs is in deep ****

Cheers

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The only bar to frequent is the Kawhia Bar



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