History of Major companies

I have heard many different rumors about Gateway, Innova, Discraft, etc. and their history dealing with each other.  Is there any truth to the stories of companies stealing disc molds, not paying royalties, etc?

[Rescue]

I have only heard of the famous Challenger law suit. Were Innova took Discraft to court. Seems the Challenger was waaaaay to close to the Aviar. I'm sure each company has all the discs (models) that are produced by the others.

[mark ellis]

The "Challenger" lawsuit is so famous I have never heard of it before Rescue brought it up. I suspect it might be more myth than truth.

Many years ago Innova sued Discraft and Lightning for patented infringement (beveled edge discs). Both of those suits settled.

[Skipper H / Ripdiscgolf.com]

Oh come on, like Mark knows anything about Discraft... some people! LOL Only kidding, Mark is the Man..

[josh wieschowski]

I think its horse hucky if you ask me. There can only be so many variations and Im sure some are the same. Big whoopeee. Change the name and call it good. IMO.

[Ken]

Agreed... the plastics do differ a bit, it would seem... just don't wait 10 years to sue, like that ex-Microsoft nutjob is doing... ugh....

[Chris Fair]

The issue with companies having similar molds is that at some point it just kinda happens that if you want a disc that does a certain thing it will have a certain wing or shape. Look at the Wizard, Ridge, Focus, and Big Bead Aviars. I've known some to go as far to call them clones of one another but at the end of the day

-Discraft wanted a .5 putter in their arsenal and the Focus flies nothing like the wizard or ridge.
-The Wizard is one of Gateways flagship discs
and for Vibram they created the VP and said to themselves "this is a very overstable disc, we should make and understable compliment" and they created the Summit which caused them to say "This is a very understable disc, and we have an overstable disc, we should create something in between" with the result being the Ridge.
-Innova has had the Big Bead Aviar for a while but the Aviar's shoulder/nose is clearly different.

Another example for me is the Orc, Wraith, Destroyer. Just stretch out the wing pretty much. And the Surge is pretty close to the destroyer me thinks.

It would be cool to see molds/plastics swapped around with diff companies. People would freak to get a Wizard in Elite X, or a Buzzz in Vibram's XLink Firm.... oh my goodness.