Definitely not an agreement NOR a knock off. This vise was in design when Sol left Glacern. The reason behind the lawsuits is what slowed Glacern from bringing this to market, but it was, in part at least, designed on site at Glacern. Sol hit the ground running... fast, and beat Glacern to market.
Stephen from Glacern personally delivered one of these to my shop last week for review and input. I strongly recommended he leave off the carbon fiber (ewww), and a few other small things I already shared with him. The Glacern does have a third hand hold on it, removable fixed jaws and few other differences. The lack of removable center jaws was one of the main reasons I didn't purchase the Orange Vise and called Glacern to discuss their options. Stephen hooked me up with both drive options to test. They have the same 1/2 drive like the Orange, but also have a hexisquare (Stephen's word, not mine) that has a hex on the outside and a 1/2 drive in the middle but sticks out of the vise so you can use standard speed handles (which I really like).
I have 4 other Glacern Vises and loads of their tooling and have spent quite a bit of time talking with the 2 remaining "founding members" of which Sol (Erik) was the third. 3 men entered, one man left and started his own company. Calling either one a knock off is a pretty blatant inaccuracy and having read the available information on the lawsuits I am pretty inclined to believe the things Stephen shared as everything I actually could verify seems honest. I only know bits of the story but to call the company that designed the vise in the first place a knock off is just wrong.
One thing I can tell you is that Glacern has surpassed my expectations as far as customer service. Since I wanted to wait for the new modular Vise to be ready Stephen shipped me a demo vise to use in the mean time since I sold off 2x 5" vises with a machine and completely forgot I need a 5" for one of my customer parts. Woops. Glacern has responded to my emails, phone calls, their 6" premiums fill my Haas every day, their facemill is phenomenal, I have a few of their CAT40 ER32 holders and wish everything in my shop had that damn coating on it. I just ordered a few of their 1" insert EM to try out and another 6" premium.
I'll grab my phone and post an actual picture of the Modular Vise. Its the first vise I have ever had that is easier to stip and wash out and put back together. Pretty bitchen. I was worried about the weight, but a few turns with an allen (same size for quick change, brake, and hold down tension) and brake is loose, moving jaws are off, slide the mech out and spray, then pull just the main body out with the three handles (damn smart design).
Hold on a min I am going to need a trip to the mens room. 
