5 Things You Can Do When Someone Steals Your Idea

Theft of ideas happens all the time in the creative industry. When you come up with something fresh and exciting that attracts attention, it's inevitable that you will be ripped off at some point by others looking to ride on the coattails of your success. And yes, it sucks. via splitshire.com Contrary to popular belief, imitation is not the highest form of flattery – it's simply annoying and makes things that much harder for the up and coming designer to distinguish him or herself from the hordes of copycats. I could tell you to just suck it up and move on when it happens to you (and it will, if you're popular enough), but that's not very helpful when you're feeling cheated and robbed, and the thief is off getting paid for your hard work. This is a common problem with a few unconventional solutions, which we will now explore.

1. Let Them Take The Fall

If your idea wasn't very good in the first place, you'll soon know from the response your competitor will get. They'll try to get validation from others, either clients or fans. They'll be roundly criticized for presenting such a bad idea, or, if they're really unlucky, others will point out publicly that they stole the original idea from you (which, if it's bad, is not a good thing). If your idea doesn't work for your thief, you now know what to do better. You can tweak your own work and avoid the mistakes they made. If it does work… you now know what to do better. You come up with an even better idea and execute it in a way that leaves people with no doubt as to who the better designer is.

2. Kick Their Ass

Stealing an idea is easy but actually making a design do what it's supposed to (solve a [...]