[iwishiwas-all*]

Look, I know this post is going to rub you along with just about every inch of Phlip the wrong way, but unfortunately I do not thing that your law argument really flies in the real world.
On paper everything you say is true, and since you went to lawschool you prob know it all to be true also.

With that being said here is the other side, in its crude, vulgar, and uncut truth.

Now, unrelated to your law books and your work experience, I am going to tell you the failure in your "spend less money on r&d and/or steal a blatant design while changing one minute detail" argument, from an engineering and ethical standpoint, which is something "mr. lawyer" needs to hear.

I am a mechanical engineering student in my 3rd year of undergrad. I, along with hundreds of thousands of engineering students spend 4 years+ of hell to learn tons of math, science and other mechanical specialties in order to create (properly) just about everything you take for granted sir. Now some of our work is 100% innovation, others are just an improvement upon a previous design. I will get to that later.

Now what we learn in school is how to engineer things, PROPERLY. Some people may not do that even with a degree but thats what we are being taught to do.

With that being said let me propose this to you.
Since you think R&D is just a hypothetical number, what happens when that number approaches zero?
(think limits people, lol engineering joke)
ACCIDENTS. thats what.

Think about the amount of R&D that goes into a properly designed product, lets start at the top.

That engineer had to go to school for atleast 4 and possibly upwards of 8 years for school, He or she paid outrageous amounts of money to learn physics, chemistry, cad design, material properties, thermo dynamics, proper mechanical design and other things that will make your fucking head spin, in order to design the product.
Everything learned is put to use in unison in order to create something. That something is a final product of months, even years of constant testing and checking. So lets say I have widget I am creating. This widget is used by humans in some workplace and is placed under certain stresses (thermal, conventional or by other means). In order to create the widget properly I take careful time to pick my materials down to the grades of precious metals or the thickness of the insulations in order to provide a safe and properly working mechanism.
I (or my hypothetical company) may buy a specific hydraulic press in order to test the strength of the widget, or high temperature furnaces to test its resistance to heat. These machines cost HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars.
We do this so when the product hits your hands it A) works properly for its specified lifetime and B) does not harm the consumer or other mechanisms it is made to work with, among other personal reasons.
So lets cut corners here, shall we?
Ok, forget hiring that materials engineer to pick out the proper grade of Aluminum for your cars doors. What happens when you get in an accident?
Will your dead ass still be happy that you bought the cheaper car made by the company who did their r&d half off to support your craving for a cheaper price ceiling?
I sure fucking hope so cause you deserve it.

Now what does Freddy or Bodykits unlimited do that is so wrong?
They copy designs but they don’t copy craftsmanship or R&D. This is for sure. Have you not heard the stories about excessive failures in these “knockoff” parts which you yourself cannot dub to be a knockoff because of your chicken and egg argument. Unfortunately for you, this is not Darwin vs Christ.

There were people who came before, they created innovative products, they put time into those products and engineered every aspect of them in order to create a safe product that could be utilized by a consumer.

Now buy that knock off part, that Cherry brand automobile, that freddy intercooler. What happens when your tierod snaps because the copy cat company didn’t put any r&d in and didn’t fail to realize that his aluminum grade was no where near strong enough to take the loads produced by a cars steering system? It breaks, you crash, and you injure or possibly kill yourself.
I will tell you the original manufacturer looked into those loads, with their 100k $ tensile stress machine, and their million dollar r&d.
They did that so you the consumer could operate your car correctly and safely.
Look every business is into optimizing costs. This only goes so far. The difference, which you fail to see, is that that threshold can only be crossed by taking dangerous steps in development which can only lead to problems.

Now you bring up this greddy cast oilpan and you ask, “oh how do we not know that freddy was first and they made the oilpan and greddy copied it. (this has to do somely with the optimized pan which greddy sells, not the fucking first oilpan ever made or whatever) Well you can tell easily. If they made a true copy, they would have the exact same materials, same build process, same strengths and finishings. But OH WAIT. THEN THEY MUST COST THE SAME!?!?!?! Well good for you, they don’t have the same materials, strengths and finishings. The freddy one has the cheaper aluminum, which costs half the price, but oh wait wasn’t tested for these heat loads like the greddy one. The freddy one was used in a cheaper cast method which cut a 3rd off the price of manufacturing… too bad that method fails in high heat enviroments.
So the consumer gets their cheaper product. Then they potentially get hurt or injured, start screaming bloody murder when they are amputee pacients and shit after a accident which they did not cause, but one of your “jo blows with 6 beers” “engineering services” did.
Looks like Eisenstein wins, buddy.
So promote the offshoots of knockoffs, and what have you its fine with me. Real consumers who know what a proper product, company, even mindsets will still try to purchase the proper piece.
When you say its cool for these companies to continue to operate, REGARDLESS OF THE LAW, all you do is leave the door open for bad things to happen.
Hold that on your concise.
I don’t care if I have grammatical or spelling errors so don’t bother.