When you stop into Mercedes-Benz of Chicago for a test drive, you'll find a whole lineup of world-renowned, uniquely designed, and above all, copyright protected new Mercedes-Benz models.

Copyright protected? Yes, that's exactly what we said. For example, the original creators of the SL-Class SL300 with gullwing doors handed all rights over to Daimler AG just about 60 years ago, and they own them to this day. This is the case with all...