@PUNKEY,
This type of thing has been going on for years. People scream
'theft' and/or
'plagiarism ' quite often. If one note of music, one dance step, one sentence of a novel, even sounds similar they think maybe it was taken from them. People think about creating some newfangled gadget and suddenly a similar item is on the market bringing in bundles of money for
someone else!
The human brain is rarely so unique as to have almost magically come up with something totally unique. Completely different from anything else. The longer people populate the planet, the more the hollers will be made.
Some years ago, I was tinkering around with ways to brew coffee. One Sunday afternoon (yes, it was a Sunday. The month was in the spring), I took a coffee filter and put in a scoop of ground coffee beans. I tied it up and began dipping it into a pot of boiling water. I experimented for a time and then "voila!", I had made a coffee bag!
Similar to the tea bags which people often use, I was happy with my creation.
Then I told a friend. He's nodded and we talked about it for a while. Months later (about a year, maybe even two), I was in a store and looked up and there they were. Boxes and boxes of coffee bags! Had he stolen my idea?
Evidence suggested that he might have. It was the same brand of coffee which we both drank. A few years later he moved to an upper echelon neighborhood in Florida.
Okay, maybe he did, maybe not. A lesson learned was "keep any new idea private until it is patented." . If it's an item which can be published, put it in an envelope and send it certified mail to yourself.
My grandfather once was sued for plagiarism. He had the better part of a page in a novel which matched that of another writer. The rest of the book was entirely different, both in words, style and subject matter. The judge ruled for the other person.
As for the coffee bags, if my idea was pilfered, so-be-it. Life is.
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