Is Manly An Authorized Licensee?

[Knife Knut]

Is Manly an authorized licensee of the Round Opening Hole, Jess Horn and other IP?

Their fixed blade, while I cannot place its name in memory, looks very much like one of the recent fixed blade offerings by Spyderco.
Their Peak and Peak 2 are obviously derived from the Jess Horn, in addition to having the Round Opening Hole.

Product Lineup: http://www.manlyusa.com/products

I came across this company from a knifenews.com post: http://knifenews.com/bulgarias-manly-kn ... an-market/

[ShaneInDenver]

I was reading this on Knife News yesterday too and was wondering the same thing. These look strangely familiar.

[Squawk]

It's not a Roundhole, it's an ellipse, so no trademark infringement there. And while the model "peak" looks like a spyderco design, i guess there's not much one can do. Manly is still quite new to the market, though they also have some nice original designs. The fixed blade model "patriot" comes as a fixed version of their own design slipjoint model "comrade". They do make some nice knives with good fit and finish at a very attractive pricepoint. All their knives are made in their shop in bulgaria. That being said - their prices in europe are way lower though, so it's attractive for us europeans to get them; as a resident of the US i'd go with a Spyderco any day instead.