Imitation is a form of flattery we could do without when it comes to faucets.

Make something good enough, or valuable enough, and someone will come along and try to copy it. That holds true for paper currency, Rolex watches, Cuban cigars and, believe it or not, faucets.

It's certainly no secret to a company such as Moen that knockoffs of our faucets continually appear on store shelves. Like most companies that sink millions into research, development and engineering, Moen works hard to protect the designs and technologies that make our faucets popular with the public and easy for contractors to service and install - and, therefore, worth copying to begin with. In one instance, we found more than 20 small, foreign manufacturers copying one design alone. In a case where we took particularly strong action, we were successful in winning a case in front of the International Trade Commission that has resulted in U.S. Customs agents turning identifiable copies of our product away at the border.