Cloning an object

[royibernthal]

Is there a point in dynamically creating a pointer during runtime only to dereference it? (if that is the right term, as in *pointer, depoint it?)
In this case should I perhaps store pointers instead of references?

Inventory.cpp

bool Inventory::addItem(InventoryItem& item)
{
	addItemAmount(item);

	if (item.getAmount() > 0) {
		if (hasEmptySlot()) {
			addNewItem(*item.clone());
			return true;
		}
		else return false;
	}

	return true;
}

void Inventory::addNewItem(InventoryItem& item)
{
	array.push_back(item);
}

InventoryItem.cpp

std::unique_ptr<InventoryItem> InventoryItem::clone(void) const
{
	return std::unique_ptr<InventoryItem>(new InventoryItem(index, name, type, maxAmount));
}

Also I was wondering, is there some sort of built-in cloning functionality or do I have to write the clone functions myself? When creating new instances I see that I can either pass the constructor properties or a reference to an object of the same type.

For instance:

new InventoryItem(index, name....);
new InventoryItem(const InventoryItem&);

Is the second one casting?