Donner Inc.

Donner Inc. manufactures a new vacuum cleaner that it claims can actively disinfect areas from bacteria and viruses, along with dust and dust mites. Whitwell Technologies, Donner's competitor, is fascinated with the idea but does not want to license technology from Donner Inc. Instead, the R&D team at Whitwell take apart Donner's vacuum cleaner to understand how it works. Whitwell improves on the technology and manufactures a vacuum cleaner that it claims to be better at disinfecting areas from bacteria and viruses than other competitors. Which of the following is illustrated in the scenario?