Not so fast there my wet shaving compadre. Charcoal Goods used to supply IB with their handles not that long ago. Once CG picked up their business, they couldn't keep up the demand of their own and provide handles to an outside vendor. They stopped supplying IB because they could not do it anymore. So, IB started producing their own. No patents on handles or copywriting infringements in producing clones of handles.
Free enterprise and Capitalism. If you really want to bite into something, look at the Big 3 Automakers in North America. They've been copying each other for over a century. A Century over Billions of $$$...... Think about that for a minute. Done? What IB is doing is a spec of sand in the grand scheme of business practices and many would argue and say it's perfectly fine.
You make it seem as though IB broke a code of honor, they've broken an ethical rule of gentlemanly restraint as artisan razor producers/manufacturers. Bottom line, they're in business to be in business. I see nothing wrong in IB's or anyone else that goes down that route.
Again, that's just me.....
I was just going to raise this point, but you said it better than I would have.
