... I tried to buy some of their old pattern cabinets, but everyone else
had beat me to the chase and the cabinets were all spoken for. ...
www.stretcher.com/stories/990517g.cfm

... I was bothered for weeks when I found out someone had beat me to the chase in developing
a pasta strainer that drains through a detachable lid ($19.95 as seen ...
www.personal.psu.edu/amf229/whoiam.htm

(HA HA HA!!! the above example is perfect!!!)


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Note added at 10 mins (2004-07-15 18:01:38 GMT)
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the example of the pasta strainer is so funny. the person is saying that they had already thought of the idea, but someone else began to market one first.

I also find it funny because I have had similar thoughts about products...

similar to stealing thunder

If only Rania had listened to protocol and I hadn't tried to steal her glory in being leader, we wouldn't have wound up in the three day coaster of hell that we did.

This is as how I see these types of situations addressed most often.


Minney did all the work but Mickey gets all the credit.

English term (edited): Cat's paw

A person used by someone else to perform an unpleasant job.

I think there are two possiblity here.
The first one for winner.
I can not think of anything but I came up with this.
hunted for anchovises but caught a whale because he damn got so lucky.

For the looser I can say:
He was fishing in wrong lake, considering it may not be winners mistake but his own.



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Note added at 1 hr 40 mins (2004-07-15 19:31:45 GMT)
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Or one can say;

XXX raised the orchard and YYY picked the apples

***

Don't mistake this for restaurant chain in America, although still American origin. "Claim jumper" is very common idiom, but I twisted it a bit (in latter case) because it appears you are looking for a situation rather than a person (a victim of such act as you describe). OK, as you may know already, this is originated in Frontier days of American West. A horde of people were out there looking for gold. Then a person named X found a motherbode (spell??) after long hard, toiling works. In order to claim the gold mine as his, he has to file it to the governing authority. But Y got a wind of it, and filed before A did. Now you know what happened. X lost everything, Y got what? This happened way too often in Frotier West.
Hope you find proper direction based on my suggestiion (i.e. I am not claiming this is the one).

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Note added at 3 hrs 47 mins (2004-07-15 21:38:44 GMT)
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Correction -- But Y got a wind of it, and filed before \"A\" did. Now please replac this \"A\" to \"X\".

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Note added at 3 hrs 59 mins (2004-07-15 21:50:46 GMT)
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A word or so for clarification. As you see \"claim jump\" is an act of theft. Thereby it takes a victim and it fit to the situarion you described.

he was tricked out of his share
he didn't get what he deserved
he was taken advantage of
his competitor got the better of him

might be too generic, but would be understood in the right context/sentence



Source: The Collins English Dictionary © 2000 HarperCollins Publishers:

pull [pʊl]

23 pull a fast one (slang)
to play a sly trick


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Note added at 21 hrs 56 mins (2004-07-16 15:47:32 GMT)
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Another similar idea...

Source: The Collins English Dictionary © 2000 HarperCollins Publishers:

pull the rug out from under
to betray, expose, or leave defenceless

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms, here is the definition.

Win praise for oneself by pre-empting someone else's attempt to impress.

The critic and playwright John Dennis (1657-1734) invented a new method of simulating the sound of thunder in the theatre, which he employed in his unsuccessful play 'Appius and Virginia'. Shortly after his play had finished its brief run, Dennis attended a performance of 'Macbeth' in which the improved thunder effect was used, and he is reported to have exclaimed in a fury: 'Damn them! They will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder.'