Patents are a very tricky area. you might remember i think it was last year there were some Chinese machines removed from C mat because of patent issues. If a company is granted a patent on some part of there product you can't copy that that is the companies for 20 years. i don't even think they can copy a service manual with out the manufacturers permission. When you buy a forklift that's all you get the forklift you don't have any rights to copy anything inside the truck. It is very difficult in areas such as this because some one might design a new idea and then patent it , then some one else might look at this and change something in it to make it a bit better this is ware it can get a bit gray and you need a very good patent solicitor.

If you look at say a kalma 12 ton forklift and a HC 12 ton forklift they look very similar but most be ok because Kalmar would have stopped it in Europe. In China it might be different and patent rules might not be stuck to as they should be

In mobile phone industry many companies are suing each other because of patent issues ,each have very similar patents and then try to take each other to court , I think both Samsung and Apple are trying to sue and counter sue each other.There was also one last year with Dyson and a company in France which the French company won. Also i believe Sany is being sued by Daimler Chrysler because of the sign on there machines. These companies have very good legal departments and are quite quick to let you know if they think you have infringed there rights' I can't really think of many issues to come up in materials handling before only last year but i'm sure there would have been some