The only thing that surprises me about this is that someone would be surprised by it.

Every single successful lure gets ripped off eventually. There are entire companies devoted to producing and selling knockoffs.

Brad's and Danielson come to mind immediately, and Luhr Jensen, too, but there are plenty more.

The only way to "trademark" your stuff is to get your branding so good that no one will buy the knockoffs...very, very few lures ever can get patented, and all will be ripped off by someone if they are any good.

Fish on...

Todd