Re: Claim of Mimicing of Product Line

Doug Lipstone <dlip[_at_]worldnet.att.net> wrote:

>

Would it be an illicit act at all? Not all copy, or "mimicking", to borrow your word, is illegal. Is there any exclusive right infringed? There is an unfair trade practice involved? If you can't answer yes to any of the two questions, probably you won't grab the "mimic" just for producing something that is similar, or identical to your own goods. Some authors discuss the theme of "slavish copying", according to which if you don't spend your own effort to reach the industrial production, you are wrong. The possible legal doctrine is that "there is no thing as a free lunch". If you are "slavishly" copying someone else, you are saving testing, research or tooling, and therefore profiting from someone else's toil or investment. The problem with such thesis is that the prior producer also had an enormous influx of free information and technology, which he also "slavishly"copied.

"Mimicking", as Aristotle noted in his Poetics, is a natural propensity man shares with other primates. It is not per se illicit or a sin. Much to the contrary.

Denis Borges Barbosa - Rio de Janeiro
<denisbarbosa[_at_]BBS.unikey.com.br> Received on Tue Mar 24 1998 - 15:00:11 GMT