DCC was invented by Lenz. They in turn opened up all the patents to other manufactures in the interest of growing the hobby.

The standard N scale coupler at one time was a Rapido product. There was a time if you bought train cars from different manufactures, they couldn't be coupled together. Rapido offered their design to the NMRA and said they would allow all manufactures to use it., which they did for many years. So in these cases, designs from manufactures in the market were freely given to others in the name of standardization.