There are few simple pleasures I miss more from California than stopping by In-N-Out Burger for a double-double with fries and a shake. The fries are fresh-cut, the employee uniform includes a ridiculously large safety pin, and you can feel sly by ordering off the not-so-secret secret menu. Alas, In-N-Out has declined to expand outside of California, Nevada and Arizona. That hasn’t stopped them from suing a guy who decided to take his own swing at the business model. Chadders in American Fork, Utah, mimicked everything down to the secret menu, with only a few negligible changes. Although this is technically a battle over “trade dress,” the more important question to me is this: If a business refuses to expand on its successful model, should that bar it from being tried anywhere else in the world? (For the record, this isn’t the first In-N-Out clone.) I personally agree with Brand Story’s suggestion that In-N-Out respond by opening its own location across the street from the upstarts. Then we all win.

—Posted by David Griner