The particular seat was patented by BA and was exclusively their product so nobody else was able to copy it. At the time it was pretty special. Many will snark these days why would they want to but keeping in mind the seat was of an era where 180 degree flat beds in Business Class was still relatively exclusive, it was a cut above what most international carriers we're offering at the time. Of course we now know that within just a year or two of this seat being rolled out pretty much every airline who wanted to market their Business Class as a cut above was going down the 180 degree flat bed route - be that their own patented design or in most cases off the peg models customised to the customers preferences.