This is an interesting subject of concern and would love to hear more about it.
Your offering here would be a replica of a found part that others could also source, measure, and replicate, so it would be difficult to determine if someone was just copying the dimensions from your replica (on the assumption that your replica would be identical in dimension to an original) or were measuring their own example of the original found part. If these were your own artistic interpretation of a custom made part rather than a found part, I can certainly see the concern, but I'm curious if you could elaborate on how you would hope to hold exclusivity over dimensions of a found part that has been publicly known for many years.
If I'm reading between the lines correctly and I understand who the people it seems you are worried about copying your dental expander replica are, does the fact that both of those people have already developed and brought to market their own functional brass replicas of the dental expander not take care of some of your worries? Obviously they didn't copy your dimensions since you haven't actually produced and released your replica yet, so they clearly did their own design work. I'm curious to hear more about what your concern here would be about this specific piece.
I've been dabbling in the found part replication game in the Vader scene so I'm always interested in how others navigate similar waters, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.
