An Education in Patent Law and How to Make a Measured, Decent Response, by OXO

Quirky (a company where, for a fee, people can submit inventions and, if enough people are prepared to support it/buy it, it gets made) recently staged a very public protest against the company OXO for supposedly stealing an idea from one of its inventors. It turns out the product was first patented in 1919 (and was free from patent in 1936). Quirky's designer's design was not original. And OXO documents that, in fact, there are numerous instances where Quirky products closely resemble preexisting OXO products. And, in fact, according to OXO Quirky is right down the street from OXO and Quirky did not bother to discuss the situation with OXO before staging its massive "protest." Throughout its response, though, OXO is not inflammatory but measured and professional. I've looked at both their sites (I have no idea why I took a shine to this), and I gotta say to me OXO's is all about how to do it right; Quirky's seems to be all about how to do it wrong. (Via MetaFilter ... and, yeah, I try to credit my sources.)