Out of Dubais , we have seen a few amazing one off custom builds obviously for Rich Arabs with unlimited budgets . This just showed up on Instagram today . I Don't know whether I should be honored or pissed that somebody with an unlimited budget chose to replicate exactly my Body Kit . Right down to the way I split and fabricated my hood/fender attachment strips ! I think I,m going to go with flattered , But I was kind enough to mention http://www.slingshotbodykits.com .right on his Instagram post .
SHOULD I BE HONORED OR PISSED ?
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Out of Dubais , we have seen a few amazing one off custom builds obviously for Rich Arabs with unlimited budgets . This just showed up on Instagram today . I Don't know whether I should be honored or pissed that somebody with an unlimited budget chose to replicate exactly my Body Kit . Right down to the way I split and fabricated my hood/fender attachment strips ! I think I,m going to go with flattered , But I was kind enough to mention http://www.slingshotbodykits.com .right on his Instagram post .
OUCH. Kevin I know how you feel (or I can see why you feel this way). My hood display of fuel injector stacks with the red led inside was a one off and a blast from the past. Now I see a company (that I think you know of as well) that is making a similar design set-up but smaller and in my opinion, not as realistic as mine. I wasn't sure to be flattered or pissed the first time I saw it as well. Since I didn't do mine for profit or spent the money to protect the design or IP of the item, it was fair game to be knocked off. But the expense, time and thought that you have invested in a product that you commercially manufacture and sell is plain wrong. I former lawyer friend of mine once said you can do whatever you want until someone steps up to stop you. This one begs to be a case in point that should be noted
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If you would of spent millions of dollars on an international patent and hired many international lawyers at great expense to yourself and your company this would not have happened. That little start up tinkle you hear when Microsoft cranks up on your computer cost them one million dollars to patent. Ya just a little tinkle... You need to get with it and spend the big bucks.
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wow... you'd think it would be cheaper to buy and ship your parts over vs having someone duplicate the work
Sure that they didn't buy it through someone else and they didn't mention that it was being shipped overseas?
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wow... you'd think it would be cheaper to buy and ship your parts over vs having someone duplicate the work
Sure that they didn't buy it through someone else and they didn't mention that it was being shipped overseas?
Some people oversea's don't like American's and don't want there money... found that out while I was in Germany.
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wokka No I haven't sold enough that I dont know exactly where they are. So I was kind of disappointed with the sales results thinking no one else appreciated the design as much as I do but seriously I am flattered , there is obviously great skill and potential and budgets over there and they chose My design , so what the hell , that just gave me an idea, I'll be right back ,I have to go post on Instagram and get some mileage out of this.
Kevin, I got back at him. I knocked off one of their designs and I'll be having the unveiling in either Kerrville or Maggie Valley
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From your past posts and as mentioned your representing companies who have copied others work I don't feel you should have anything to say about it .....
New EZ-OFF SOFTOP Avialable from SSBK.c
J & D SLINGWORKS 4 PAK HOOD VENTS ON SALE NOW
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Don't throw stones when you live in a glass house.
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From your past posts and as mentioned your representing companies who have copied others work I don't feel you should have anything to say about it .....
New EZ-OFF SOFTOP Avialable from SSBK.c
J & D SLINGWORKS 4 PAK HOOD VENTS ON SALE NOW
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Orangeman, I hear yah Brother , but in my own defense, do you not think your analogy would be a little more accurate if I had simply reverse engineered Patrick's great top design and put it into production using exactly his forward pivoting design and attachment engineering. Basically copying his design completely and just offering it from another manufacturer.
Not only did I use my own design for my own attachment system , I respected him by specifically not using his great forward pivoting design, physically or in principal. Also I acknowledged and gave Patrick the accreditation due for being the first one to remarkably well demonstrate to us that , that type of top construction can be used viably in a Slingshot application. I respected his design , and gave him credit for it and only offered a different version using the same type of construction.
Which I shelved, partially due to all the controversy, and am coincidentally releasing a new Soft top in a month or two even further from his design, but I'm glad I posted this in an open forum instead of my own vendors forum so that people may feel free to comment. Are we suggesting that because Evolution developed the first fiberglass body panels for the Slingshot application that I nor UAS whom is currently bringing out an entire new fiberglass front end , that somehow we have wronged Evolution ? And that somehow the people who will benefit from competitors designs using the same type of construction should not be allowed to do so ?
Surely Funinthesun was just poking fun and rightfully so , saying, heh I was the first to bring out that design . Surely he does not begrudge the Slingshot owners who have benefitted from their purchase of a J&D 4 pak , After all it was they, not he, who invested their money into the manufacturing and marketing of an pre-existing technology, new to the Slingshot application. Hood stacks have been used in the auto hot rodding industry for years, where do you think Phil got the idea lol
My bit of a gripe Orangeman in the opening of this thread was that someone had reverse engineered and used my design to a tee, even used my method of forming new narrow hood / split fender strips to allow the hood to rise separate of the fenders , using my exact engineering of attachment points and systems , just duplicated mine , calling it there own and not even giving me credit for it .
So I ask you, Orangeman is it really your opinion as stated above in post #10 that you see no difference in what they did and what I did, in just using similar construction methods ? Neosolidus ?
I think after the #10 and #11 posts its a fair question of me to ask ?
And I really want to know the members opinion of this because in another month or so I will be releasing my new version of my revised Soft top and I,m curious . Is it the opinion of the members that the first person to introduce, a slingshot application using a known construction method from another industry combined with their expertise and their design and manufacturing skills, that proper etiquette says they somehow now own that construction method, not just have a claim to fame for their great design and application but now somehow prohibit other small manufacturers from ever displaying a design or application of their own using that same construction method . Can you imagine me saying I built the first front end kit with closed wheels out of fiberglass for slingshots so now customers don't have the right to see what U.A.S. can do with a fiberglass closed front end ?
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Well said Kevin. And yes, I was the not the first to EVER put stacks on a hood, nor was I the first to ever put stacks on a slingshot's hood. Lobster John from California did a set over 4 years ago and when I did mine, I added the leds to it. Never wanting to mass produce or make money from what I did. Similar to open source coding in software. It was fair game to anyone wanting to knock it off with their version of it. In fact it validates what I did.
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I don't see anything wrong with recreating or copying and improving something that hasn't been patented , however one thing that I have always hated is double standards.
If you yourself copy someone's work then you can't throw a fit when someone else does it to you.
At the end of the day $$$ is the main deciding factor for 90% of people when buying something not who made it first, the other 10 usually prefer a place based on business practices.
