In other situations, if a design is patented, yes issues could arise. But that would also be the case if a would-be competitor acquired a product, stripped it down into its component parts and then manually measured and modeled the parts with the object of copying it. In some cases the actual overall product design (such as the Coke bottle shape), can be patented. The Coca-Cola contour bottle shape was both patented (1923, 1937) and trademarked (1960, 1977).