Not that these tactics are always done by the big corporations in the name of squeezing out competition. Sometimes it's the little guy who figures out how to game the system.

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For instance, what kind of soap do you have next to your bathroom sink? Statistically, it's probably not a bar of soap, but one of those little pumps of liquid. It's neater and more convenient, and soap companies sell billions of dollars' worth of them every year now.

Via Funnycoolstuff.com

You know, the ones we all have in our bathrooms.

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But back in the 1970s, liquid hand soap was sold by one guy: Robert Taylor, and his small company Minnetonka. It was his invention, and he knew he was on to something big. Test audiences loved the product and, despite barely having enough resources to do so, Minnetonka decided to go all in and make a push to take the product nationwide.

There was only one problem: Nothing he was selling could be patented. The concept of liquid soap wasn't new, and simple pumps had been around since the dawn of civilization. As a result, Taylor knew several huge soap manufacturers were ready to happily steal his idea the very moment it looked like it could succeed on a large scale. Armed with superior resources and the ability to quickly R&D an imitation product, the industry giants were ready to crush tiny Minnetonka.