When a competitor copies somebody else's product, is that a good thing or bad? Very, very, very bad, said a federal grand jury in Apple vs. Samsung. It found Samsung owed Apple damages in excess of $1 billion for, among other things, making phones and tablets whose rounded corners aped too closely those of Apple's. The court's decision, thinks David Hsu, professor of management at Wharton, will have the effect of strengthening the branch of patent law that protects design (as compared to functionality). "There seems to be," he told a Wharton interviewer, "a broadening of the protection of design elements."That's exactly the wrong direction the law should be heading, say the co-authors of a new book.

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