Intellectual property rights are routinely trashed in business and for most intents and purposes don't exist. If there is no patent or copyright, there is no intellectual property that can be protected.
Levi's jeans? Most Americans can name another ten brands in less than 20 seconds.
The Mustang pony car? Camaro, Firebird, Challenger, Barracuda.
Colt vs Smith and Wesson revolvers.
1911? Copied on government contract by Remington Rand, Union Switch, Ithaca, and most notoriously Singer, the worst of the lot. Now? Cloned world wide.
How about the IBM personal computer?
Iphone vs Samsung - leaving out dozens of others.
The multitude of zinc die cast .25 autos that came out of Florida from the 60's on.
And not least - the AR15. Colt owns all the assigned rights, the .Gov owns the TDP, unless the State Department starts persecuting manufacturers for ITAR violations we will likely see ten new vendors in the next ten years, and a dozen others shut down. I have no problem with Stoner/Armalite/Colt/DOD's intellectual property rights over gas impingement or the barrel nut design of the M16 - please state just exactly where it can't be copied?
Nowhere. IP doesn't exist the way the modern generations think it does. Case in point, a new manufacturer of pocket knives was getting ramped up to production as the market was ripe for another Brand. They hired away the Master Cutler of a major manufacturer who immediately started reproducing the lines of knives right down to the exact same blade shapes, materials, even the specific names of the knives. The only difference was the name on the shield pinned to the scale on one side.
It said Remington. And the knives were named Trapper, Tuxedo, etc, just like almost all the others on the market. Given the name of the knife most enthusiasts can tell you exactly what blades are in it and their shape.
Where's the IP exclusive to just one maker in that? Doesn't exist. It's a figment of the public mind.
Growning up, there was about three styles in leisure shoes for kids - tennis, high top, and low basketball shoes. Look at the athletic shoe market today and then explain how intellectual property rights are protected. Same with guns. If Kel Tec had really wanted to make their concept protected and difficult to copy, then what could they have done with their design, production, and marketing? They could have got it right, made it reliable, priced it low enough to discourage competition, and then shipped enough to satisfy demand. What did we get? Decent Customer Service to fix the poor production quality, fluff and buff, few variations on models, borderline styling, and pricing to be challenged.
Kel Tec didn't do a very good job, and when you leave the barn door open like that, then expect others to come in and milk the market with better goods and services. Ruger did that. No lawsuits because no IP issues. Sure it looks like a copy, no argument. Jordache jeans look like Levis. Both have sold at Walmart. Americans don't care.
We could continue, of course, by bringing up the Rolex Submariner or GMT, two of the most copied watches in the world, but frankly, it's beating a dead horse. Every other watch maker world wide makes one. IP? Prove it.