How do different brands get away with copying the exact same product from a competitor then simply renaming it?
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Large brands do not copy it exactly, they make some small changes, and if the makers of original product sue them, then they hire lawyers to fight back and argue that the product is different. Even if original product wins, it can take years, so many times they do not bother suing.
Fake-brands indeed make an exact copy of the product, but make it hard to find or sue them, e.g. by being based in a foreign country with weak laws, and changing their name often.
They check patents and make sure their process/materials are not infringing on the competitor. If their alternative can still cheaply be made and they can make money after cost of researching, manufacturing, and marketing. Then they do it (ethics aside) legally.
Patent, copyrights and trademarks are a pretty complicated topic.
The thing is, it is very hard to patent, non-novel and obvious things. So if you build some fancy product with a couple of buttons and a dial – the mere fact of there being buttons and dials is typically non-novel and cannot be patented.
If a product is a box, painted blue with a simple on-off switch on it, the actual look of that box is probably not patentable. It is too obvious and not novel.
But if the physical arrangements are novel and useful – say a controller for a Playstation, then it likely qualifies for protection.
If someone designed a brand new way to make potato chips involving a novel new process, that specific method might be protected but that protection does not extend on all forms of potato chips.
This is way too complicated a matter for ELI5.
Because there’s no law against copying an *idea*.
Patents only protect *inventions*. While the law is far from perfect, the idea of patent law is that it’s supposed to provide limited protection for a truly novel invention that would not be obvious to someone else skilled in that particular field.
So having the idea of a vacuum cleaner isn’t patentable.
A specific vacuum cleaner that uses one particular mechanism to create suction might be patentable (and lots of patents have been granted on vacuum cleaners). But that doesn’t stop a competitor from inventing a different mechanism that achieves the same effect.
Lots and lots of products don’t even require inventions. If anyone else would have been able to easily come up with basically the same product once they hear about the idea, then it’s not patentable, and there’s nothing stopping you from copying it.
The other forms of intellectual property protection are trademarks (you can’t copy another product’s name), and copyright (you can’t copy another product’s text, the exact shape, the exact color/design, etc.).
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