Originally Posted by 2020throwaway
My update: papers have been filed with the investigator. Continued boilerplate emails from Eustice/opticsandammo. I would encourage everyone to work with your credit card companies, contact the detective listed elsewhere on this thread, and contact the manufacturers of the products you tried to purchase directly. Let them know what happened. I personally wouldn't have any interactions with Mr. Eustice going forward, but I guess choose your own adventure.

For those that don't know, OpticsandAmmo has been sued for trademark infringement by Vortex. The case is pending in the Southern District of Texas. It's case number: 4:20-cv-02304 SHELTERED WINGS, INC. D/B/A VORTEX OPTICS v OPTICSANDAMMO, LLC, and CHRISTOPHER DAVID EUSTICE

You can view the documents in PACER: https://pacer.uscourts.gov/ but there is a small fee after viewing a certain number of pages per quarter, I believe. Keep that in mind. Don't throw good money after bad, but it is cheap entertainment if you are looking for it. His "motion for an extension of time and sanctions," filed in response to Vortex's complaint, is kind of interesting in that it reveals some of his ""business model."" (double air quotes, as I am using this term loosely) The parties are currently fighting over whether he can proceed pro se (corporations have to be represented by an attorney in federal court), and over an extension of time. Some highlights, from OpticsandAmmo's motion:

On the business model -

"The Defendants have tried to work with Vortex Optics over the past 4 years, but Vortex Optics wants to bully small business owners because they do not have the resources necessary to open up a physical storefront as required by Vortex Optics. The Defendants have thus engaged in wholesale purchases with many authorized Vortex dealers such as such as BHPhotoVideo, OpticsPlanet, Cabelas, and others. All of these vendors offer B2B Sales Programs and Discounts for Business Purchases. All of the listed products, regular prices, images and product descriptions used on the Defendants website originally were provided to the Defendants by BhPhotoVideo in the Fall of 2016. BHPhotoVideo informed the Defendants that they had the full rights to use their images for advertising and the like. It possible the Vortex Optics listings have become outdated, because the Defendants have to manually update 35,000 products by themselves in addition to running the day to day operations of their company. The Plaintiff seems to fraudulently deny the fact that their own authorized dealers make B2B sales of their products. Vortex Optics is not entitled to a Monopoly over the resale of their products. This would run contrary to all common law and legal knowledge."

On the need for an extension of time -

"To further support the extension of time to respond to the Complaint, the Defendant provides the following facts: Somebody very close to the Defendants passed away recently, the court was closed on Friday July 3, Defendant has been locked out of his ECF account and is trying to regain access, Defendant's neighbor's dogs chewed through the Defendant's internet cable which had not been properly buried by AT&T, Defendant is currently dealing with final exams and other many other stressful and time consuming commitments. Furthermore, the case has been pending due to COVID-19 related court disruptions and that should also be fully considered.

Defendants respectfully request for an extension of 30 days time to respond to the Plaintiff’s Complaint. This time is necessary to allow the Defendants some additional time to find the expensive legal counsel which they are currently unable to afford. This will also allow some additional time to research the many complexities of intellectual property law in the event that the Defendants proceed in this case Pro Se."


I highly doubt B&H granted a guy in his house in Houston the "rights" to use everything on their website. I wonder if B&H knows about this? He claims to still be a student. I wonder if whatever university/community college he attends knows about everything going on?

Bottom line: he has no money and has resorted to "I need more time to learn the laws I've broken" and "the dog ate my cable connection"-type arguments. (Vortex's attorneys note that Eustice has filed these arguments in other cases across a length of time in which the cable should have been fixed.) Infer from that what you will...



That is absolute gold! While it would be wrong to claim all the credit for Vortex taking legal action, after the asshat referred to in this thread diddled me out of my hard earned money over a simple Neoprene Vortex Spotting Scope cover, i just might have sent them a message asking them if they knew this clown was using their products to rob people! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!