Cease and Desist Sent to Wicked Lasers over Arctic Spyder III

Remember that ultra-powerful yet super affordable laser we posted about last month? It comes from Wicked Lasers (of course), and I’d argue that it’s the first laser to be sold that actually deserves to be called “wicked”. At 1W, it’s able to cause instant eye damage, cancer if it touches the skin, and Techgage’s traffic numbers to go up. Or something like that.

Most people I’ve seen comments from thought it was cool, although pretty much everyone agrees that it’s dangerous… so dangerous that it almost shouldn’t even be sold. Sure, guns kill, but it’s not exactly easy to buy one of those and tote them around. It seems like one person in particular wasn’t too pleased with the product, and believe it or not, it has nothing to do with the fact that they’re dangerous.

Rather, it’s a problem of the Arctic looking like a lightsaber. Yep, you guessed it… George Lucas has become an instant non-fan of Wicked Lasers’ latest product. The problem, though, is that Wicked Lasers hasn’t once called this product a lightsaber, but rather its fans and the media have been. And while I do enjoy the occasional old-school Star Wars film, I didn’t look at the Arctic and immediately think “lightsaber”. But, it could have been due to being too scared to think.

In essence, George Lucas seems to be sending a C&D based on what media outlets are saying, and that’s a little ridiculous. Not surprisingly, Wicked Lasers doesn’t seem too concerned, and I don’t think it should be. It’s not marketing the Arctic as a lightsaber, and though it does look somewhat like one, just how powerful are these trademarks on fictional items?

In other news, are you interested in getting a sneak peak at just how powerful the Arctic really is? Wicked Lasers a couple of weeks ago posted a YouTube video that shows us just what we want to see. Prepare to be blown away:

Steve Liu, CEO of Wicked Lasers, said his 7-year-old company has been selling similar lasers for years and has never compared the product to the Jedi weapon wielded by Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and others in the “Star Wars” franchise. “Most people feel it’s kind of ridiculous …,” he said. “We would never use any comparison like that to ‘Star Wars’ or a lightsaber or anything like that.”