Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

So...apparently, the patent ran out on "post-it notes" in 1997 but 3M still owns the trademark "post-it" and the yellow color. People are creatures of habit and post-it is a household name so 3M still sells post-it notes at a huge premium. But they wanted to maintain market share without reducing the price point of the ever popular post-it notes. Enter Highland! Highland is manufactured by 3M but it is positioned to compete with the new generic companies trying to take market share away. And it is well positioned since it gets to use the yellow color that 3M still has a lock on and can probably be made at minimal cost in the same facilities where Post-its are made. The original post it notes, that still sell really well, cost $10.00+ for 12 pads of 3x3 notes. The Highland notes cost $4.00 for 18 pads of 3x3 notes. What's the difference? Zip, zilch, nada, nien, nichts, nothing...not a freaking thing except for the price. So, the moral of the story for 3M is that if you have great, well-known product and are really smart, you can continue to sell it at a huge premium even when competitors are out there. The moral for you and me is that if you are really smart, you will realize that these Highland notes are simply re-branded post-it notes from the same company, but they are 1/3 the cost. 3M is literally banking on people not realizing this. But now you know better, right? Now you can just smirk the next time you see some real post-it notes.