US Messenger Bag Company Discovers Copycats In Asia... Says We'll Keep Innovating And They'll Have To Keep Up

from the nice-response dept

We've pointed out in the past that too many companies totally overreact to copycat products hitting the market. If you're really an innovator, you keep innovating, and copycat companies won't be able to keep up. Or, worst case, if they leapfrog you, you build on their designs as well. However, many companies, still freak out and call the lawyers (or politicians!) and say "this is wrong!" So it's nice to see a company react smartly. Reader Wes sends over this blog post from the company Tom Bihn, which makes messenger bags, luggage and such things -- who recently discovered an Asian company blatantly copying one of their designs. So how did they respond? By noting that imitation is the highest form of flattery, and that they're just going to focus on innovating, so any copycats will just have to keep up:

Looks like someone liked our authentic Ristretto for iPad so much that they decided to copy it. This email was forwarded to us by a customer in Norway. Can any of you translate it for us? Our best guess is that this product is made in somewhere in Asia (not Norway) though we don't know for certain. Are we mad? Not really. We're too busy designing the next generation of laptop bags -- the copycats will just have to keep up with us.

Filed Under: copying, innovation
Companies: tom bihn