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It is a fact that search engines can identify duplicate content on websites. At times, this is intentional and malicious. There are also cases where multiple websites under one company share content. I am focusing on the latter.

Partial content overlaps on sites is normal and should pose no problem. You can get penalized for aggressive cross linking between sites with similar and/or duplicate content. If you do have multiple websites that share content such as products, articles, or usage statements, it is best to create as few links between the sites as possible, and let them remain as discrete properties.

Having a unique design and template will help differentiate sites for spiders and automatic penalties, as well as human editors that work/volunteer for online directories such as DMOZ.org.

summary: if you aren't trying to falsely innundate search engines with multiple websites containing duplicate content you should be ok. Intent is where the outcome lies.