The original Australian Arrow Tag
Archery Tag® vs Archery Attack
Searching for archery tag in Australia? Archery Attack runs the same sport — Arrow Tag, combat archery — with no licence contracts, no non-compete clauses and USA-made bows. Here's how we compare to the US brand Archery Tag®, and the real court history between us.
Archery Tag® is a registered trademark of Global Archery Products, Inc. Archery Attack is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Global Archery Products, Inc.
This page recounts our own experience and summarises public court records in good faith, with sources linked below. It is general information about our history, not legal advice or commentary on anyone else's obligations.
The scoreboard
Every number below comes from the public court record — sources linked.
- 0
- Lawsuits Archery Attack has ever filed — against anyone
- 2
- Federal lawsuits Global Archery filed against small operators, cited on this page — both dismissed [1][4]
- 938
- Days their lawsuit against us lasted before it was dismissed — with no finding against us [1][2]
- US$2,875.50
- What the court ordered Global Archery to pay us in legal fees over a discovery dispute [1]
Side by side
Archery Tag vs Archery Attack at a glance
A truthful side-by-side. Every row is either drawn from the public record and Global Archery's own website (see the numbered sources) or clearly framed as our experience.
Archery Attack
Independent Australian business — Melbourne arena + equipment sold worldwide
Archery Tag®
Global Archery Products, Inc. — US equipment maker & licensor, Ashley, Indiana [8]
Contracts to run games
Archery Attack
None. Book a session or buy equipment — we'll never ask you to sign a licence agreement to play or to run your own games.
Archery Tag®
Runs a Licensed Provider program; using the Archery Tag® name and materials requires their agreement. [8]
Non-compete clauses
Equipment freedom
Archery Attack
USA-made bows from Tribe Archery, foam-tipped arrows and full-face masks. Buy it, own it, use it however you like.
Archery Tag®
Archery Tag® brand gear is sold solely by Global Archery Products — "We are the sole source", in their words. [8]
The sport's name
Archery Attack
Arrow Tag, combat archery — generic names for a game anyone is free to play or host. No permission needed.
Lawsuits against small operators
Numbered references link to the public sources at the bottom of this page. Want the gear without the strings attached? See our Arrow Tag equipment — or just book a session and play.
The legal history
Our history with Archery Tag® (Global Archery Products)
From a US$10,000 equipment order to a US federal courtroom — and out the other side. Entries marked "Public record" link to a source; entries marked "Our account" are our own recollection, told straight.
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2011 Public record
Archery Tag® launches in the USA
John Jackson's Global Archery Products introduces the Archery Tag® brand of foam-tipped-arrow equipment in Indiana and begins licensing providers around the world.
Source [8] -
2014 Our account
We buy our first kit — and sign their licence to get it
Starting out, we purchased roughly US$10,000 of Archery Tag® bows and equipment from Global Archery Products. Buying the gear meant signing their licence agreement — including a non-compete clause.
-
2014–2015 Our account
The bows fail — and we're told to stop using them
The bows developed faults. Global Archery emailed us about the equipment failure and told us not to use the equipment. Around a year passed without replacements arriving — a young business, paid-up, with gear it couldn't safely use.
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2015 Our account
We re-equip with USA-made Tribe Archery bows
With no replacements in sight, we sourced our own supplier: Tribe Archery, a US bow maker. We kept the games running on our own gear, under our own name — Archery Attack.
-
13 Oct 2015 Public record
Global Archery sues a Seattle hobbyist over "arrow tag"
Global Archery Products sues Jordan Gwyther, owner of the LARP community site larping.org, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana (No. 1:15-cv-00297), alleging patent infringement over foam-tipped arrows and trademark infringement over "archery tag" search advertising.
Source [4] -
18 Jan 2016 Public record
Global Archery sues us in US federal court
Global Archery Products files Global Archery Products, Inc. v. Firgaira (No. 1:16-cv-00019, N.D. Indiana) against our founding family and business names — later amended to name Archery Sports and Archery Attack — alleging breach of the licence agreement's non-compete clause and a failure to return equipment.
Source [1] -
Feb–Mar 2016 Public record
The EFF steps into the Gwyther case
Global Archery asks the court to order Gwyther to take down his crowdfunding appeal; the Electronic Frontier Foundation files an amicus brief calling the proposed gag order an unconstitutional prior restraint. In March, Global Archery voluntarily dismisses its patent claims with prejudice after German prior art is analysed.
Source [5] -
25 May 2016 Public record
Gwyther case dismissed
The court dismisses Global Archery's case against Gwyther for lack of personal jurisdiction. No court ever ruled that his "arrow tag" marketing infringed anything.
Source [6] -
2016–2017 Public record
We defend the case from the other side of the world
Our motions to dismiss are denied — the licence agreement's Indiana forum-selection clause holds us in a courtroom 16,000 km from home — and the case grinds on into discovery. In August 2017 we file our answer and counterclaim.
Source [3] -
May–Jun 2018 Public record
A discovery fight goes our way
The magistrate judge grants our motion to compel discovery in part and orders Global Archery to pay US$2,875.50 of our attorneys' fees.
Source [1] -
13 Aug 2018 Public record
Case dismissed — no finding against us, not a cent paid
After Global Archery stipulates that the equipment sales it had pointed to were not at issue, the court finds the remaining claim (at most US$20,147) cannot meet the US$75,000 federal threshold and dismisses the case on our motion. Judgment is entered the same day. After two and a half years, the lawsuit ends with no finding of liability against us.
Source [2]
How it ended
Case dismissed.
Two and a half years after Global Archery Products sued us, the court threw the case out. Straight from the order:
- No finding of liability against us
- No damages awarded
- Judgment entered 13 August 2018
The Court GRANTS the Defendant's Motion to Reconsider [ECF No. 70] the Court's July 21, 2017, Opinion and Order [ECF No. 52] and DISMISSES this case.
In our own words
Our story: the Archery Tag® lawsuit, from our side
First-person, measured, and consistent with the public record — because the facts do the work on their own.
We started Archery Attack the way most people start something they love: young, all-in and a little naive. To get going we spent about US$10,000 on a kit of Archery Tag® bows and equipment from Global Archery Products in Indiana. Buying the gear wasn't a simple purchase — it came with a licence agreement to sign, non-compete clause included. We signed it, because that was the only way to get the equipment.
Then the bows started failing. Global Archery emailed us about the equipment failure and told us not to use the equipment. We waited for replacements. Roughly a year later, they still hadn't come — and you can't run a bookings business on gear you've been told not to use. That's our account of it, and we've kept the wording here to what we experienced first-hand.
So we found our own way forward. We sourced USA-made bows from Tribe Archery, put our heads down and kept building the thing we'd started — our own name, our own equipment, our own games. That decision saved the business. It's also, as far as we can tell, what put us in Global Archery's sights.
In January 2016, Global Archery Products sued us in the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana — breach of the licence agreement's non-compete clause, they said, and a failure to return equipment. Our founder was 25 years old, staring down a lawsuit from an American company in an American courtroom, sixteen thousand kilometres from Melbourne. The licence agreement we'd signed to buy those first bows even decided where the fight would happen: its fine print locked us into Indiana's courts.
We defended it for two and a half years. On 13 August 2018, the court granted our motion and dismissed the case, finding Global Archery's remaining claim — at most US$20,147 — couldn't meet the US$75,000 minimum for a US federal court to hear it. No finding of liability was ever made against us. We never paid Global Archery a cent in damages. Along the way, the court ordered Global Archery to pay US$2,875.50 of our legal fees over a discovery dispute. Every one of those facts sits in the public docket, linked below.
We wouldn't wish those years on anyone. But they shaped how we run Archery Attack today: no licence contracts, no non-compete clauses, and equipment we stand behind. If you run games, or want to, we'd rather help you than handcuff you.
Our pledge
We will never sue you.
Arrow tag is a sport, not a franchise. We went through years of litigation so we know exactly what it costs a small operator — and we want the opposite for this game. Play it, host it, build a business on it. Here is our standing commitment:
-
We will never sue a player, customer or operator
Run arrow tag games anywhere, under any name. You will never hear from our lawyers for playing or hosting the sport.
-
No licence contracts — ever
Nothing we sell comes with a licence agreement, franchise fee or ongoing royalty. Buy gear, own gear, done.
-
No non-compete clauses
We signed one once. Never again — and we will never ask you to sign one.
-
The sport's name belongs to everyone
Arrow tag, combat archery, battle archery — call it what you like. We claim no ownership of the game or its generic names.
-
We back new operators
Starting your own arrow tag business? We'll sell you equipment and cheer you on — even if you compete with us.
-
Open, free-to-play, always
Our equipment customers get our game formats and safety know-how to use freely. The sport grows when everyone can run it.
— The Archery Attack team, Melbourne
Quick answers
Archery Tag vs Archery Attack — your questions
The short version of everything above, for people in a hurry.
Is Archery Attack affiliated with Archery Tag®?
Will Archery Attack ever sue a player or another operator?
Can anyone run an arrow tag game without a licence?
What bows does Archery Attack use?
Did Archery Attack get sued by Archery Tag's maker — and what happened?
Where can I play Arrow Tag with Archery Attack?
Sources
Public records and reporting supporting the statements on this page.
- Docket, Global Archery Products, Inc. v. Firgaira, No. 1:16-cv-00019 (N.D. Ind., filed 18 Jan 2016; dismissed 13 Aug 2018) — CourtListener/RECAP
- Opinion and Order dismissing the case, ECF No. 71, Global Archery Products, Inc. v. Firgaira (N.D. Ind., 13 Aug 2018)
- Opinion and Order on the motions to dismiss (claims + licence agreement summarised), Global Archery Prods., Inc. v. Firgaira (N.D. Ind., 22 Mar 2017) — vLex
- Docket, Global Archery Products, Inc. v. Gwyther, No. 1:15-cv-00297 (N.D. Ind., filed 13 Oct 2015; dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction 25 May 2016) — PacerMonitor
- Electronic Frontier Foundation, "EFF Defends Live Action Role Players' Right to Criticize Patent Suit" (18 Feb 2016)
- Ars Technica, "Trademark lawsuit over LARP archery gets thrown out of court" (8 Jun 2016)
- Ars Technica, "Archery company drops foam-arrow patent case against LARPer" (17 Mar 2016)
- Archery Tag® official website — Frequently Asked Questions and Intellectual Property Policy (licensing model, sole-source equipment, trademark notices)
Play the sport. Skip the contracts.
Arrow Tag at our indoor Melbourne arena — real bows, foam-tipped arrows and a host who runs the show. No licence required, ever.
Archery Tag® is a registered trademark of Global Archery Products, Inc. Archery Attack is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Global Archery Products, Inc.
This page recounts our own experience and summarises public court records in good faith, with sources linked below. It is general information about our history, not legal advice or commentary on anyone else's obligations.