Reputation Online did a survey on how agencies would deal with their ideas being stolen from unsuccessful pitches. The result was mostly notable for the all-round acknowledgement of the magnitude of the problem of ideas being ripped off from the pitches. Some suggestions on how to interact with the parties involved were listed, but mostly, there seems to be a resignation to the fact that there is little that can be done to reverse or rectify the act of stealing the idea itself.
And these are large agencies we are referring to. What legal recourse or medium for protesting does a freelancer have if his or her work is ripped off by a client who is substantially larger and has access to legal resources to defend him? Are there any third-party verification tools for free-lancing designers and creatives, who can use such tools to protect their work every time they send it across via email?
What measures do you take to make your ideas ripoff-proof?
Filed under: intellectual property | Tagged: copyright, stolen ideas
