From my understanding of patent law, GFC is fine here. Where GFC would be in trouble is if they directly copied Vagabond distinctly. Patents in the US allow for other competitors always. Look at Yeti and their patent. RTIC basically straight up copied them. They got busted, had to make a minor change, and now they are back fine. A GFC is pretty different than a Vagabond for a lot of reasons, which everyone here knows, and the one common theme is that it is a “wedge” design. Think about a company like Traeger or Yeti…file patents and immediately have competitors that are legally sound because they have virtually the same thing (just minorly different). A GFC is very unique and original under its own banner and they will be completely fine. Patents like this are simply for protection of the business filing. I’m sure GFC will be issued a patent for their design if they are in fact in the process.
Another way to think about it is Leer vs ARE vs Snugtop. All three are patented in US and can exist just fine. There is no way that a court of law would hold up patent infringement for simply anything that is a “wedge”…it is just too general and the goal of patent courts in the US are not to stifle competition but rather encourage it.