I suppose it's a bit like a recipe for toast, loads of ways of getting to the same end result. The late Trevor Housby, "invented" a fly he called the "Dog Nobbler" & it was very successful indeed, he then arranged to have it tied commercially by Sid Knight who then went on to patent it. It was later proven that a very similar style of fly was around in the 1930's & fished in the U.S's great lakes.
Today there's such a proliferation of "new" materials etc that virtually any lfy one ties other than to the originators recipe could arguably be called either new or a variant. Sure patterns get into general acceptance by being published etc & through being used at waters other than which they were originally designed for. But the word "new" is always going to be subjective.
Someone once showed me a page in a book, which had maybe 80 or more identical line drawings of a fly on it, the next couple of pages was also identical. At the bottom of each page was a list of dressing names, all different but all the drawings were the same. The author was making the point about re-inventing the wheel.
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