5 ms·

I think 3M already has the Post-It market cornered. If there were no patent, a new-comer who just copied them wholesale would likely have a hard time making a s

by tdavis 18y ago

I think 3M already has the Post-It market cornered. If there were no patent, a new-comer who just copied them wholesale would likely have a hard time making a significant dent in the market. Unless they priced them significantly lower, forcing 3M to go lower, until you get to a point where all commodities are actually priced as such. Wouldn't that suck? ;)

jamesbritt 18y ago
My local Walgreen's offers numerous products that are essentially knock-offs of name brand items. For example, I prefer Edge gel shaving cream; the particular one I like has an orange cap, a black can, and some colored logo lettering stuff. The Walgreen knock-off looks damn near identical. I bought it once by mistake, and thought, hey, maybe I'm a chump paying for the brand name. But it wasn't as good. (The gel itself was possibly as good, but the packaging sucked and it wouldn't dispense correctly after a some usage). For many items it is very easy to join the market, and having a patent may be the only way to secure a lead over poor imitations.