As many of you are aware, in November of 2011, Lucky Line starting marketing a novel idea - Thumb Lites.
Well, here's what you may not know.
In April 2011, Jet Hardware entered into a legal agreement, signed off on by all involved parties, granting Jet an exclusive distributorship for what we thought was a pretty neat item - Thumb Lites. This agreement granted Jet Hardware the right, to the exclusion of all others, to distribute this product into the locksmith trade through our wholesalers and distributors. Jet had represented the product as such when we introduced it at the 2011 SHDA conferences and commenced shipping the product immediately thereafter.
You can imagine our surprise and dismay to be told in early November of last year by distributors of ours that not only has Lucky Line starting offering our identical product, but with packaging improvements that we had discussed making on future runs of the Thumb Lites!
We immediately attempted to contact Thumb Lite for what we were sure would be a reasonable explanation for such a blatant breach of contract but when Thumb Lites finally did call us back, no such reasoning was offered.
Sadly, we had no choice but to pursue our rights. A lawsuit was filed in the State of New York against Thumb Lites on January 10, 2012 for breach of contract demanding various types of damages for its action. A copy is being sent to Lucky Line to put it on notice of this illegal activity.
How this will turn out is anyone's guess, but we feel it important for our customers to know "the rest of the story", as the late Paul Harvey used to say.
Anyone who has dealt with Jet Hardware for any length of time knows our word is our bond and our integrity and quality are impeccable, unsullied, and unimpeachable. If we say we have an exclusive distributorship, rest assured we have one. What others may do is beyond our control and not foreseeable.
I will be sure to keep you all updated on the status of this unpleasantness and can only thank you all for your continued support and understanding. We pledge to continue to do right by you, our faithful customers and users, and to continue to exhibit the same business ethics, professionalism, and honor that we have done for the past 35 years.
