..so just create an image and 'they' will purchase your product at any quality/ price level. So, "don't worry, be happy"
Yeah... you see how well that worked out for Eliminator.
This is not even close to reality. You don't create an image, it is created for you. You create a product and you try to impart upon the buying public how important certain aspects of it such as quality, price, availability, service, safety et al were to you during the conception and execution. The response created is your image.
Eliminator took a beating in the last several years because they started coasting on their name. Your above stated theory led to gypsy riggers, poor quality control, rare innovation and dated appearances. After dropping in both image and quality as a result, Eliminator realized that they had to do something and so they did. They hired a real tooler, a real rigger (trained by DCB BTW...) a great gelcoat artist and some composite engineers to try to get back on track. As of today, they are coming back in a big way.
If anyone has created anything that can be protected through copyright or patent, I suggest they do and have sent more people than I care to count to my lawyers for referrals. You say you would rather buy a new car than one for your lawyers... great. Clearly you have never created anything protectable. You don't need an award winning legal team to win... you just need the balls to protect what is yours and the foresight to do so ahead of time.
And lastly... nobody in this business is big. Nobody. The biggest business we are talking about would get steamrolled by a real big business. These are all small businesses running near empty. Who is going to have such deep pockets that they can afford to hit the courts full time defending themselves ineffectively against obvious patent or copyright issues? Rex? Eddie? Dana? I think not. They will cease and desist immediately. I have already been in an extremely abbreviated legal battle over my protected "Sharpening the Cutting Edge" slogan by a semi large company, Sidi motorcycle boots. They were immediately hit with a C&D and folded in seconds. Two days later I had legal letters in response on my desk, photographic evidence of more than $10,000 worth of print ads destroyed and letters of apology from the Italian owners for the illegal actions of their American distributors who saw my slogan on a truck.
I would be scared of going up against Microsoft or Coke... but they are smart enough not to rip us off...