How to Defend Your Designs Against Knockoffs
Throughout history the pattern has been the same: First an innovative design is introduced for a specific audience; then it's followed by reproductions--often unauthorized--that are marketed to everyone else.
"Knockoffs are inevitable," says New York City-based lighting designer Lindsey Adelman. "It's not bad or good.
It makes sense that people will see something and want it for themselves."
It also makes sense that knockoff artists will try to profit from that desire. So, besides costly legal protection, how can designer-entrepreneurs avert imitators or, better yet, turn the knockoff challenge into opportunity?
Emeco's aluminum Navy chair has become the poster child for this practice. The iconic design, manufactured via a rigorous 77-step process at the company's Hanover, Pa., factory, was developed in 1944 to provide indestructible seating for use on Navy
