"If someone copies you, you continue to innovate and beat them to the market. If you really understand your market better, then you can out-innovate them. And, despite continuous worries about “big companies” copying startups, history shows that it’s not quite so easy. If the startup is successful, it’s not so easy to just copy, because the startup has built up a reputation, which isn’t so easy to copy. Witness how Netflix outran Blockbuster, despite Blockbuster copying Netflix. Witness how Google outran both Yahoo and Microsoft. Witness how Microsoft outran IBM. It’s not so easy to just “copy.” And just copying isn’t enough to actually gain marketshare."
Source: http://www.kizo.com/2008/misunderstanding-the-problems-of-the-patent-system/


