Japanese RD anyone?

[dadagoboi]

IMHO yes they should be able to. This is a complex subject though and I realize that many will disagree.

Fair enough!  A great designer, Victor Papanek, completely agreed with your view of intellectual property.  His books, 'Design for the Real World' and 'Nomadic Furniture' are the backbone of my design philosophy.  Probably the biggest reason I got back into design after dropping out of Architecture school to RAWK and needing to invent a way to feed my family after that didn't work out.