Reminds me of some other stories where inventors lost out:
- James Dewar invented the vacuum flask, but had his design patented by a company called Thermos. He took them to court and "while Dewar was recognised as the inventor, because he did not patent his invention, there was no way to prevent Thermos from using his design"[0].
- Wilkinson Sword introduced stainless steel razor blades in 1962, but a company called Gillette "managed to patent it before Wilkinson did ... [and Wilkinson were] forced to pay royalty to Gillette for each blade it sold"[1].
The IP in question here would be copyright (as mentioned in the article) and these days likely trademark as well.
He did have a copyright,but this was deemed invalid. Copies flooded the market.
Now,of course,all (most) toys have a limited shelf life. But the clones are just in it for the money,the developer is discouraged and retreats. Further development is abandoned.
With software there are advantages to being open, or closed, but in both cases copyright and trademarks serve to protect the project. Obviously clones, copies,fakes and forks exist,but trademarks and licensing serve to protect the original authors intentions, and the author has choices in what protection they want.
Patents on software though such. I can't defend those.
The trademark does seem to matter, so long as you can convince people they should buy your brand.
Alas, the butcher too failed to put the proper copyright notice on his face
His father owed money to a butcher, why did he need to have a "revenge" against someone who borrowed him money?
As a side note, I'd use lent instead of borrowed, the butcher lent the father money. Borrowed can be used in this way, but at least in my experience typically is only used as the father borrowed the money (from the butcher). Regional variations exist though, some of my friends from other areas of the US do use borrowed in both ways.
So I guess we're ripe for a third wave of troll craze...
Had no idea they dated back to the '60s.
Rabbits feet on necklaces were trendy when I was in high school. It wasn't the first time they were trendy among young people.
<h1 class="c-post__title"><strong>How the inventor of the troll doll missed out on a fortune</strong></h1>
This must be some bug in whatever CMS they’re using to make it easy for writers to author webpages.
Personal examples notwithstanding, those people are definitely not using the word correctly. "Borrowed" is just not the right word in that context. When responding to an ESL speaker, suggesting that it might just be a matter of taste/preference/whatever is mildly negligent.