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Every business operation and activity should be executed in a legitimate manner. Consider that you have stolen a product idea and used it for your brand. Would this be considered a legal option? The answer to this question is no. Copying something which you do not own is an illegitimate activity. As a business owner, you may face several legal and corporate penalties. The government may apply a ban on your products resulting in the loss of customers.
Plagiarism is usually used with writing works, academic papers, and research submissions but the problem exists in a lot of other areas as well. If someone has spoken about a thought and you have used it as is, it would fall under the category of plagiarism. Hence, it can be said that plagiarism is not limited to writing pieces. Apart from students, business owners, corporate professionals and even public speakers should be aware of this issue.
Through reverse image search, you can determine whether your company logo or any other business-related image has been used by someone else or not. A lot of brands suffer because their logos are uploaded by counterfeiters.
Plagiarism extends beyond written submissions
Copying a blog is among the common examples of plagiarism. Bloggers and website owners usually face this problem when a post which they own is copied and used on another website. This is a typical example of plagiarism but there are scenarios of various other types as well.
- Business plagiarism is a common problem which entrepreneurs face. Going through an example would clarify this thought in a greater manner. Consider that you have a brand of perfumes and there is a new scent which you plan to launch. One of your competitors gets a sniff a launches a similar product before you. This would damage your product progress even before it is viewed by the potential buyers. As a result, this is counted as an illegitimate act. Business owners cannot steal the thought or set of ideas which belong to someone else. A lot of business owners do not know about this aspect or even intentionally copy ideas to save the effort. This creates several problems for them.
How can intellectual property plagiarism damage your business?
It takes a long span of time to build a positive reputation. In addition to that, the built reputation vanishes in a small span of time due to one wrong move. A lot of reputed business brands have closed down in the past after copying intellectual thoughts. Coming up with a good business idea is several months or even a year of creative thinking. If you have come up with a smart idea, it belongs to you whether it is on paper or still in the verbal stage. If someone is copying that thought and using it to his own benefit, it is an infringement of business rights. This does happen in the corporate world and brands which are involved in it face severe damages.
Here are some key negative factors attacked with intellectual property plagiarism.
1. The loss of trust is guaranteed
If you have a look at the market sector in any category, only a few brands capture the entire sector. For instance, if you want to buy a pair of shoes, you would count on a few brands only. Your aim would be to choose a product from one of these brands. Why is that so. This is because those few brands have a more trustworthy image than the others. On the other hand, a large percentage of brands are not considered by users until they run out of options.
- If you copy thoughts that have been used by a brand, people would stop trusting your brand. Even consumers have the mindset that if a brand does not offer something unique, it is not dependable. This is the reason why brands with unique product options have more customers. Hence, if you are copying an idea, product or even an offer, customers would stop believing in you and what you offer. For them, having unique products is the most important aspect. Even a small concept can create problems for a brand if it has been copied. Intellectual plagiarism is counted as a major issue and executes long term damages for a brand.
2. Facing the legal wrath
Business procedures are not run without legal regulations. Every company that is a part of the corporate world has to abide by these rules. The violation of these rules results in legal penalties. In worst cases, companies are even barred from continuing with their business operations.
- Plagiarism of intellectual property is not a small violation by any means. In legal terms, it is a sophisticated form of stealing where you actually do not steal something physical. However, the theft is still committed. This is because you are using something that does not belong to you and someone else is the owner of the thought.
- There is no doubt that legal penalties are applied on business owners and corporate professionals who are involved in intellectual property plagiarism. The actions depend on the regulations of that particular country. However, in an overall manner, the reputation of the company is tarnished and people stop trusting it. It is obvious that when buyers stop trusting a brand, they do not buy the products launched by it.
3. Loss of clientele
It is never an easy task to build a proper clientele. To start with, if you are new in the market, you would face a tough competition from brands that have an established image. Even if the brand is a new venture by an established group of companies, it faces competition. It takes immense hard work to build a list of regular customers. These customers would choose your brand over the competitors available. This is only possible when a trustworthy relationship exists.
- As a business owner, if you copy an intellectual thought and your customers figure that out, it becomes a negative aspect in terms of reputation. People would stop buying your products because copying intellectual property is an unethical act after all.
- Every customer expects to get unique products from the brand selected. If a brand is offering copied products, it loses its trust immediately. Once the reputation of a brand is lost, it becomes impossible to regain it. Hence, brands should make sure that they do not get involved in any kind of intellectual plagiarism act as it can tarnish the corporate reputation for ever.
4. Negative reputation is long term
It takes a long span of time for any company to construct a positive reputation. However, using ideas and thoughts that have been introduced by another brand causes a lot of trouble. The brand loses its reputation and this is a long term damaging factor. Hence, if you have a look at reputed brands, they are very particular about retaining a positive reputation. They make sure that nothing unethical or unprofessional is done.
- Intellectual property plagiarism is a sign of immense unprofessionalism. It damages the interests of the company that owns the thoughts. Other than that, the brand which is guilty suffers a lot as well. Every reputed brand comes up with original ideas and thoughts only. This is a sign of legitimacy and professionalism. When you introduce unique thoughts and ideas, there would be no issues in having customers and retaining them as well.
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This content is sponsored by Asad Shehzad.
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