plagiarism promotional literature and structure
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 9:44 pm
I have created and am the sole presenter of a rather unique IT education course and I have used a commercial IT training company to market it for about 10 years.
That company has recently decided to produce their own similar course and have adapted my promotional literature (the degree of direct plagiarism is huge,) and copied the unique and distinctive structure for their own product. Unlike most IT training course, this course is somewhat unique and recognisable with no other IT training company offering anything comparable.
Clearly I cannot stop a company from creating a similar product in an area they see as profitable, but the degree of plagiarism is so complete that a potential customer would scarcely recognise any difference between the two courses. Thus, shortly when they withdraw from selling my course, their new course will become a more or less identical replacement.
I was of the understanding that copyright would apply to items including promotional literature and also the intangible but vital structure of the course.
How should I try to protect my course with its "brand?"
That company has recently decided to produce their own similar course and have adapted my promotional literature (the degree of direct plagiarism is huge,) and copied the unique and distinctive structure for their own product. Unlike most IT training course, this course is somewhat unique and recognisable with no other IT training company offering anything comparable.
Clearly I cannot stop a company from creating a similar product in an area they see as profitable, but the degree of plagiarism is so complete that a potential customer would scarcely recognise any difference between the two courses. Thus, shortly when they withdraw from selling my course, their new course will become a more or less identical replacement.
I was of the understanding that copyright would apply to items including promotional literature and also the intangible but vital structure of the course.
How should I try to protect my course with its "brand?"