Gura Gear Settled a Lawsuit with Peak Design Over its Record-Breaking Everyday Messenger Bag

Earlier this week, Gura Gear’s acquisition of Tamrac closed its final chapter when the camera bag manufacturer announced the G-Elite series. While the merging of the two entities might be complete, it’s been far from smooth sailing.

In September of this year, Gura Gear filed a lawsuit claiming Peak Design’s new Everyday Messenger bag, funded on Kickstarter and designed with the help of photographer Trey Ratcliff, infringes on a number of patents held by Gura Gear.

In the complaint, Gura Gear claims Peak Design still intellectual property, likely acquired in the Tamrac deal.

Specifically, Gura Gear pulls out the following description of a product they claim Peak Design infringed upon:

A container for facilitating rapid access to the interior of the container to remove articles from the container, comprising: a. a generally rectangular body having a base, two end walls and two sidewalls respectively interconnected at their adjacent edges to adjacent edges of the two end walls, the walls extending upwardly from the base to form the body with a top opening; b. a side closure flap attached to a respective one of said two sidewalls and secured against the respective one of said two sidewalls by fastener means, the side closure flap adapted to span over and covering said top opening of said body and forming a top when the side closure flap is in a closed position; and c. said top of said side closure flap having full length double zipper means for opening or closing said top to gain access to the interior of said body; d. whereby the interior of said body of said container is accessed by either flipping over said side closure flap to an open position or unzipping said double zipper means on said top of said body to access the interior through said top opening of said body of said container.

The description might seem vague at first, but when you take a look at the overall design of the Peak Design Everyday Messenger, it’s very clear that a number of features explicitly stated in the above text are present, almost to the word.

All seems to have been settled though, as Gura Gear dismissed the case, likely as part of a settlement deal that allows Peak Design to license the design explained in the patent. You can find the complaints and filings on Rational Patent.