Georgia Mountain News

A Republican candidate for Georgia's Ninth Congressional District has been involved in several lawsuits, including at least two intellectual property violations, according to several court documents.

Andrew Clyde is owner of Clyde Armory. He has been sued for trademark infringement, dilution under federal law, deceptive trade practices, unfair competition and unjust enrichment under Georgia law, according to one document in a 2012 case filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia at Athens.

"As a result of defendant's unfair and infringing acts or misappropriations, the plaintiff has been irreparably damaged and, unless the defendant's infringing activities are enjoined, the plaintiff will continue to suffer irreparable injury and harm to its property and goodwill," the court document states.

That lawsuit involves FN Herstal, a firearms manufacturer, that alleged Clyde infringed on their intellectual property, the "SCAR" rifle. 

In a bench trial order in that lawsuit, U.S. District Judge C. Ashley Royal ordered Clyde to cease any use of the SCAR rifle or SCAR-Stock or any imitation of it, as well as to abandon any trademark applications that show the rifle and assign any domain names that include SCAR to FN Herstal, among several other orders.

The rifle was manufactured in 2004 after the U.S. Special Operations Forces Command (SOCOM) requested bids from firearm manufacturers to create a new assault rifle for the military. FN and several other manufacturers competed for the contract and FN was awarded a 10-year development contract.

From 2005 to 2006, FN promoted the rifle at trade shows and, in 2008, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) approved a semi-automatic version of the rifle for non-military commercial sale.

Clyde met with John Klein of Sage International in 2006 for replacement stock systems for several products and adopted "SCAR-Stock," or "SCAR-CQB Stock," later that year. His reasoning for using SCAR was that it stood for Sage Clyde Armory Rifle stock, but when he adopted that acronym he was well aware of the SOCOM program, according to a court document.

"Indeed, Joshua Smith, Clyde Armory’s former chief operating officer, testified that FN’s SCAR was well known in the firearms market in 2006," the bench trial document states. "When Mr. Clyde told him about the coined acronym for the replacement stock, the two discussed that FN already was marketing a product under the SCAR mark. Mr. Smith testified that, by adopting SCAR‐Stock, Clyde Armory was attempting to take advantage of the popularity surrounding the SCAR mark in the firearms industry."

Clyde appealed the ruling to the 1tth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and the three-judge panel in that appeal affirmed Royal's ruling.

Clyde was also involved in a lawsuit in 2014 for intellectual property rights. In that complaint, Savvy Sniper was sued by Blue Force Gear. Clyde was named as a party to the alleged violation of tortious interference in business, deceptive trade practices involving another firearm product, and patent rights.

Clyde Armory is a dealer for Savvy Sniper, that lawsuit alleged.

Clyde is currently running for the U.S. House in the Ninth District in a Republican runoff against Matt Gurtler.

Several officeholders made endorsements in the primary. Gurtler was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie  (R-Ky.), both of whom were described by the Associated Press as libertarian-leaning. Clyde also received an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Jody  Hice (R) of Georgia's 10th Congressional District.