There are two kinds of products in the IMVU product system: Primary products and Derived products. Primary products are usually the first product of a given geometry to have been built. You should think of Primary products as the parent products from which all others ought to be derived from, and the children are the derived products in the tree.

For example;
MV wishes to create a 3d model of a sofa mesh and allow others to derive from it. First she must create this model in her 3D program then export it with the correct file extensions provided by imvu to be able to get it into the imvu creating client. MV then derives from imvu base empty furniture product ( every item you create for imvu must first be derived from an imvu parent product)
MV creates the sofa mesh in a 3D max and uploads this item to the imvu client. Placing a fee of 300 credits to derive. (Credits are the form of Virtual currency for imvu.)
Bob searches the imvu catalog for a sofa mesh that will be the right size and shape that he requires to fit into the room environment he is decorating. He finds this sofa mesh is the right fit. Bob derives the sofa and changes out the textures for his own textures that will match the look and feel of his themed room he is working on. Bob uploads this product to his own catalog paying the fee of 300 credits to MV for the use of her base mesh . Bob sets a profit on this product of 250 credits and offers it for sale to his customers in imvu.
When this item sells in the catalog IMVU first takes a cut of 350 credits. MV takes a cut of 300 Credits and Bob gets his cut of 250 credits from every sale from then on. This sofa can be sold over and over and over.
One primary mesh sofa can be derived from many many times, in all diff textures and will appear visually way different that each other.
Tip ; – Did you know you can still derive from your own products EVEN if you have set your product to non- derivable?