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Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by hbosch on Thursday November 21, 2019 @02:43PM (#21598624)
If you go to a grocery store, you'll find many versions of cheddar cheese specifically. Some of it is blocked, some slices, some shredded. You'll also find that in at least one of these forms, the store has it's own brand – called a "private label" – of cheddar cheese, probably shredded. Because Kroger, or Wal Mart, or Whole Foods has said "hey, selling cheddar cheese is a good idea and we can compete in our own stores". So they make a competing congruent product, maybe quality and prices are lower, but that's OK. The customer can make their own decision on which cheese to buy.

This is exactly the same concept as Amazon's private label businesses.

Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by kadoban on Thursday November 21, 2019 @03:06PM (#21598906)
There isn't a design there that's being copied or a brand being appropriated. I mean however many centuries back someone figured out cheddar cheese, but nobody alive has a proprietary claim to it.
Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by zerocrates on Thursday November 21, 2019 @03:53PM (#21599474)
Somewhat of a tangent, but in the EU there is "brand" type protection for many types of cheese (think Parmesan), they have to come from the specified geographic area and use proper production methods, or else use a different name.
Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by mipmap04 on Thursday November 21, 2019 @03:46PM (#21599401)
What about sodas like Dr. Pepper vs. Dr. Thunder? Do you think producing Dr. Thunder is ethically questionable from a business standpoint?
Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by adolph on Thursday November 21, 2019 @05:08PM (#21600253)
Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by LMo on Saturday November 23, 2019 @04:03PM (#21616532)
Thanks for posting; Hydrox becomes the imitator...
Re:Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy by kadoban on Thursday November 21, 2019 @04:19PM (#21599751)
I don't think so personally. It is a pretty blatant ripoff of course, but Dr Pepper has also been around for a long time now (at least a century?)

I don't think copyrights/patents/whatever apply, but if you think of the principles behind them as a bit of a guide, designing a novel product should ideally let you profit off it exclusively for a while (to incentivize invention), but probably not forever (to allow competition and lower prices).