Just like his father did before him, Kip Arnette is facing a legal dispute with the second-largest U.S. maker of sunglasses, Oakley Inc. in Foothill Ranch.
The co-president and owner of Electric Visual Evolution, is fighting in a lawsuit filed March 16 by Oakley that claims the San Clemente sunglasses company infringed on its patented optics technology.
Oakley contends in the suit that EVE’s “circuit” model sunglasses use its patented decentered corrective lenses designed to cut image distortion and enhance peripheral vision. The lenses, designed by a team including Oakley founder, Chairman and CEO Jim Jannard, are used in many Oakley lines, selling for as much as $300 a pair.
“We’re not going to lose focus on what we are doing, so we are going to let our lawyers handle that side of things,” said EVE co-founder Bruce Beach.
Electric’s sunglasses lines, which are manufactured in Europe, sell in stores for $59.95 to $84.95. The company also sells snow goggles. Its sales are roughly $1 million to $2 million annually.
Oakley, whose trendy shades are worn by superstar athletes and celebrities, reported sales last year of $363.5 million. The company, known for taking a zero-tolerance stance against patent infringement, has demanded a jury trial in the Electric case. The company has several other pending lawsuits with sunglasses companies and others it claims has infringed on its designs, including Nike Inc., Bausch & Lomb Inc. and Adidas America Inc.
Four years ago, Kip Arnette’s father, Greg, a former Oakley sunglasses designer who broke off in 1991 to found Arnette Optical Illusions, agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a suit Oakley brought against his company in 1994. Neither party admitted wrongdoing in the settlement.
