Not really a monopoly, as there are several competing brands. At least abroad. There are plenty of other markets with an dominating actor where competition isn't harmed, so it's not considered problematic in the antitrust sense.
One should probably take the invention story here as just a story, foldable diaper changing stations were starting to get common in 1986, at least in the Nordics.
> One should probably take the invention story here as just a story, foldable diaper changing stations were starting to get common in 1986, at least in the Nordics.
I was wondering about that too.
I first saw one in a men's toilet in the early 1990s. That was that was at the cafe owned by St-Martin-in-the-Fields in London (the big one on Trafalgar Square) which I was very impressed by at the time. They was pretty sure they were fairly common in the UK at the time, just in the women's, and had been for a few years.
If the idea of fold down tables had been invented in the US in a mid 80s that would be a very rapid spread, though possible as its an obvious good die. However if they were getting common in the mid-80s its obviously not the origin (or the only origin - parallel invention is quite likely).
I looked up the only brand of fold down tables I know and apparently they started already in 1981, so it makes sense the product was well established half a decade later.
Parallel invention happens, it is not a complicated invention, but it is just as likely someone remembered something they saw abroad. We don't know. But apparently they executed well on the idea, regardless of where it came from.
One should probably take the invention story here as just a story, foldable diaper changing stations were starting to get common in 1986, at least in the Nordics.