A light-saber is a fictional weapon. A laser is a real object. There is no point where the two intersect.

I’m not one for the intricacies of copy right law, but just a cursory analysis of the two images makes them look pretty similar. I don’t know why Wicked Lasers designed the way it did, but the design certainly seems like it takes elements from the typical lightsabre design.

Whether that means anything, I have no clue, but I at least would acknowledge that the two look similar (and I imagine, unnecessarily so). As another commenter already noted, its clearly created some confusion online with a large number of people immediately comparing the two, despite the rather different uses.

I think there’s something to be said for George Lucas’s position. I would agree with The Infamous Joe (#31) about these being actually dangerous objects, though I find the laser to listed as 1 watt instead of 5 watts (not a very great difference, comparable, say, to the difference between 22-cal-long-rifle and 9-mm-parabellum rounds).

The kind of laser one uses in a laboratory comes in a more or less rectangular metal box, for the obvious good reason that you can set it on the bench, and it will stay there, instead of rolling away. Likewise, such a laser is likely to have threaded screwholes, mounting flanges, etc., so that one can conveniently build it into an apparatus by more precise methods than simply taping it down. This Pro Arctic Laser would appear to be manifestly packaged as a toy, with lots of nonfunctional decor. It doesn’t have any sighting mechanism. It is obviously intended to be waved around wildly. This laser would appear to be rated at a watt, in the same range as the most advanced disk burners, but it is not encased in a protective housing. It would appear to fall into safety class IV, the most dangerous class, and in fact, the manufacturer admits as much. By comparison, a laser pointer is only rated at a milliwatt or less.

The laser is advertised in the following terms, on the manufacturer’s website, “this laser possesses the most burning capabilities of any portable laser in existence. That’s why it’s also the most dangerous laser ever created… *Supplies are extremely limited as voluntary and regulatory restrictions increase the difficulty to purchase Class IV portable lasers.” In other words, the makers of the underlying laser device try to restrict sales to legitimate users, such as the makers of disk drives and optical cable modems. The web page has the split personality of a cigarette advertisement, one part, “real cooool,” and the other part, “… the Surgeon General warns…”

Toy guns are made in bright plastic colors so that they won’t be mistaken for the real thing, and children carrying them will not get shot by mistake, in what one might call “mistaken self-defense.” If Glock began manufacturing automatic pistols designed to look like toys, I am sure that Mattel and Hasbro would get very upset. George Lucas’s complaint does not exactly resolve to copyright or trademark, but that does not mean it is not legitimate. Presumably Lucas’s proper recourse would be to lobby for suitable consumer product safety standards for Class IV lasers, ie. a rectangular package capable of being bolted down, etc. If toy Lightsabers cannot instantly be distinguished from dangerous weapons, then Lightsabers will have to be banned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser
http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html