Have you ever been a victim of plagiarism?

We're sure you've experienced it in some form.  Maybe you shared a secret recipe with a close friend and soon found they were passing it off as their own.  Or maybe you've become famous for a particular catch phrase only to hear it being repeated by a colleague who is taking credit for it.  Or worse, your child earns an award for a short story and later you find out he copied it off the Internet.  Each of these situations is an example of plagiarism.

Plagiarism is defined as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.

Each of the examples above are annoying and irritating, but it's only the third one that might actually carry any sort of legal ramification.  That's because plagiarism is particularly hurtful, immoral and illegal when your Intellectual Property is affected. 

Intellectual Property - or IP - refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.  This may well include promotional and advertising pieces, forms, and other documentation you develop to promote your products and services.

If you've ever received two nearly identical discount coupons or promotions, offered by two different companies for the same maintenance service or product it's a sure bet one of them developed and paid for the design and the other one copied (plagiarized) it.

Recently we learned of a small company that was deliberately plagiarized by a large corporation.   The small company spent several months researching a particular new Law, spoke to local experts, wrote informational articles and in the end, developed a set of IP advertising documentation including a new, proprietary form -- all in an effort to promote compliance to this new Law.

The large corporation decided they wanted to promote compliance too.  Not only did they undercut the small company on price, but in their rush to compete, they also took all of the small company's Intellectual Property and passed it off as their own.  This is a perfect example of a blatant and unethical act of plagiarism.

Since "creations of the mind" have been around for as long as man has enjoyed logical thinking, we took a look back through history to research the punishments for plagiarism.  We were hoping we'd find something interesting like the Rack, or the Stocks or even thumb screws - you know some sort of medieval and public torture device that would teach offending plagiarists a lesson while still giving the wronged a modicum of perverse satisfaction....but alas no.

actual thumb screws

About the best we could find is that most cases of plagiarism are considered misdemeanors punishable by fines of anywhere between $100 and $50,000 and up to one year in jail.  Plagiarism can also be considered a felony under certain state and federal laws. For example, if a plagiarist copies and earns more than $2,500 from copyrighted material, he or she may face up to $250,000 in fines and up to ten years in jail.

With the advent of email and the electronic sharing of information, the control of your IP is particularly challenging.  Even when you put confidentiality statements into your email signature to prohibit the copying or sharing of your emails (and attachments), some people will still violate your Intellectual Property and take it for their own.

The speed with which we can create and disseminate information means all of us should consider not only what we're sharing but also how deeply we need to safeguard it.  We can't advise you how to protect your Intellectual Property but you should know there may be legal recourse for some instances of plagiarism. 

And for those times when legal recourse is not warranted or cost effective, we think someone should bring back the Stocks.  What a perfect punishment for plagiarism! It is swift, it is public and it is painfully humiliating with the added benefit of being extremely affordable.   We're all about simplifying people's lives - perhaps it's time to return to simplified justice!

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Executive Errands - nearly 5 years in the desert providing legitimate concierge and absentee home services from Palm Springs to Indio.  www.executive-errands.com  760.469.2487