You guys just lost my business for your complete lack of integrity.

In

Wow, wall of text!

Could you shorten it to just the specifics?

way to rip off a local, y'all couldn't be original? "oh no this isn't a SLAP plate, see the change in angle of the loop?" yeah y'all hit a SLAP plate with a hammer or dropped it or something whatever...hope y'all lose a lot of business

If by changing the company image meant to copy another persons design that close and market it under tapco..... thats the wrong direction. However, if you have a deal with these guys, disregard the first comment and good luck.

They don't have a deal. The SLAP plate maker is a local and he's not happy. no deal, no creativity, no integrity

I'm thinking there is no deal............ http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=8&f=35&t=450409

What is a slap plate and what doe's it do?

well it doesn't use google for you, but it's a sling adapter end plate for AR type rifles

Not only would I not buy any of their stuff, I'll now tell all my customers to stay away too.

Kind of a dirty move in my eyes...guess I'll have to put Tapco in the same book as Botach as companies not to do business with...

Tapco has lost a ton of customers with their shoddy business practices. They obviously don't care about their customers, or the community they represent. To them its all about the buck.

This is good to know. Glad I found this out before I ordered a Timbersmith AK and SKS stock. I definitely will not be giving tapco any of my money ever again

wow... ok, just got back from the NRA show and I have some catching up to do here.

We were just made aware of the "SLAP" plate literally 2 days ago. I was a part of our market research when this product was in development. We did some pretty extensive research for all types of locking plates and end plates that allowed the use of a sling. No one here, including myself, ever thought to search for "SLAP plate". I searched eBay, Amazon, all of the major parts retailers, and the U.S. patent and trademark office. We found nothing similar, so we proceeded with design and production. Having no knowledge that this other plate existed, we certainly did not copy it.

We were just made aware that this plate existed a couple of days ago, and are currently looking into how to proceed from here.

I hope to update you on this situation as I can. As of now, I've given you all I know and have been as honest as Abe. The unfortunate fact seems to be that two parties created similar solutions to the same problem. There was no ill-will or conscious decision made to take advantage of anyone else's work.

Thank you for any patience and understanding... I'll update as I can,
Damiean

Here's some background material from when Botach really did steal the design. http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=1052448&page=1 It might help explain why the responses to your plate announcement were so rabid.

Thank you, that does explain a lot.

Damiean,

I appreciate the fact that you are addressing this issue and not just deleting the thread.

Hopefully this can all be resolved between Derek and Tapco.

We shall wait and see.

Perhaps the innovator of the SLAP should have placed a couple ads somewhere. You can't copy something you're unaware of. Happens all the time, similar solution to a shared problem. First guy to get it in Shotgun News wins in my opinion.

I appreciate your attitude, but the slap plate is all over a Google Image Search and Ikickhippies has sold it on his own site, the aim surplus site, and other retailers sites. I don't own an AR yet and I know about this thing.

Tapco makes firearms accessories as a business if they didn't know about this they seriously dropped the ball, and if they did know it...well then they kicked somebody in the dick and stole the ball. Either way they really need to make this right

This may be the case... but who would just instinctively know to search "slap plate" when you are looking at end plates? also known as locking plates... None of us had ever used the term slap, when referring to it. Searching for "End plate sling" or "locking plate sling" or any other combinations of those will not give you this "slap" plate. If you didn't already know the slap plate existed, which was our case, you would have no way to stumble across it using typical keyword searches.

When I googled "sling plate", which is what I would have put in if I was doing pre-purchase research, the first link mentioning the SLAP came up as number 11. It was the link to AIM Surplus' page and didn't have an image in google. I can see how that could have been missed.

Oh, my god Ruger, S&W copied Glock, and the list goes on.

Damien,

I understand you are playing damage control here, but if you are going to quote me at least click the link. The google image search was for "ar end plate sling" which is the first thing I would google if I was about to roll out a new product called an "AR15 End Plate Sling Adaptor"

I would love to think that this is an honest mistake, and that you all are gonna make it right, but when you try to spin things with no regards for the facts that people bring up it makes you look twice as shady.

Glocks patent is way expired. They had their 20 years to make their money and they continue to do so. Even with other similar products out there. They are a global company and at this point even a direct copy will not even cause a dent in their revenue.

You are comparing apples and oranges.

We have been in contact with Derek and are continuing to working through this situation. We hope to reach an outcome that works for both parties.

More to come as it develops.

So what happened with this?