Quote Originally Posted by Identity_Crisis
Why should the guys at the top do anything? They didn't make any money off those 700000 sets of Rota's. There is no defending knock-offs. Had they made the money off of all those wheels then yeah, they could probably drop their prices a little and have more designs because of a bigger budget. Thats why the nicest wheels are so expensive though, because not too many people buy them.
Had they spent $100+ on a design patent that protects the ornamental design of an object then nobody could legally duplicate it or import it. Automobile manufacturers have been putting patents on their wheels and wheel covers for decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent