Origin
The electrostatic cleaning system which P&G sells under the Swiffer brand was created by Kao Japan. This excerpt from A 1999 BizJournals article explains that "P&G can't claim it came up with the idea on its own. A similar product was already on the market in Japan, by a company called KAO".
"KAO was marketing this product in Japan for five years," said Cynthia Georgeson, spokeswoman for S.C. Johnson, a $5 billion-a-year, family-run business with brands including Pledge, Johnson Wax, Raid and Windex. King said P&G knew of the KAO product, but did not seek a licensing agreement."
There are a few sources that say P&G copied the complete design from Kao after learning that the design was not patented. Although P&G may have licensed the original design. It is said that when Swiffer launched in Japan, it was so similar to the original Kao product that the Swiffer and Kao parts were interchangeable.
Read more about this topic: Swiffer
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