"Copy-Cat" designs at Safariland

[StellarRigs]

Has anyone heard about the Safariland copies of our Stellar Triple and Quad mag pouches. ?

A lot of you guys know our holsters and know many of our products are quite unique. I recently found out that one of our revolutionary designs has been copied by Safariland. I took samples and mold plans to Blade-Tech in Washington in 2009 to see if we could partner up on an Injection molded or CNC mold produced models to improve quality control and create higher volumes of these Triple and Quad mag pouches. The folks at Blade-Tech were very busy with projects of their own but said that we could work out a partnership in the near future.

Since then, one of their key employees went to work for Safariland in the "R&D" Department. I called him on this and he said he knew nothing about it but would pass on my desire for a partnership on my design. That was a month ago.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Big companies as rich as Safariland don't have to copy custom designs to get even richer. Or maybe they think they are just too big to sue. Feedback from you guys is appreciated.

www.stellarrigs.com/StellarMagPouches.html

[jocko]

look at the kel teck 380 and the ruger 380. If those are not copies I will kiss ur little ass. KT didn't protrect themselves with any patent protection and Ruger took the chicken sh!t way out of coming out with their own 380,and paid a high price at the beginning with over a 50K recall of their product due to safety issues, that the kel teks had but Ruger never caught.

I feel for u but competitive makers of product will "steal" ur invention if u don'tprotect it.

If u have patent protection, u might very well have a legal cause for cease and desist. i would think alot of holster makers don't have patent protection as it is very costly and maybe ur gild of leather crafters have an unwritten code of ethics to not copy each other,but again maybe also Safariland does't care about "ethics"

Problem is that IMO a court will only look at it from a LEGAL STANDPOINT and nothing else.

[jlottmc]

I have seen a couple of these in leather pop up in the academy, but had no idea what was going on.

[Longitude Zero]

Safariland has lawyers on retainer and can outlast most all comers. Patent and copyright protections exist for a reason, if yours are not protected before this occurred then not much the courts can do to help you. If you did I hope you have the finances to outlast'em.

[johnh]

I hate to see big companies do that. I have seen other holster makers designs ripped off as well. I suspect the lawyers on retainer point is exactly how they view any such tactics. Even with patents, they assume they can out spend smaller companies on legal fees. Personally I will not buy products from vendors that do that. I can vote with my wallet at least.