But will they steal my idea [2006]
- Date : (2006-01-04)
- Author : SAIE
But they will steal my idea!
One of the most common fears of first-time entrepreneurs is that their business ideas will be stolen or copied.
It's an excuse. Worrying about your idea being stolen is often an excuse not to start your business. Because idea theft is so rare, it shouldn't be a concern. The important thing is not to worry about who is going to steal your idea, but how you can make your idea work.
Nothing to fear but fear itself. If a vegetable producer wants to sell cabbages on the market but is afraid they will be stolen, she may never get to plant the seedlings and grow cabbages to sell. Being afraid won't get you anywhere. It's better to start and fail than it is to never get started in the first place.
If your idea is something that doesn’t need much development, there isn’t much you can do to stop it being copied. Unfortunately, in reality “ideas” cannot be protected. However, there are some steps you can take to help you stay ahead of your competitors.
Establish your idea quickly. The best way to stay ahead of copy-cats is to be the first on the market with your idea and establish your share of the market quickly. By being first on the market you have a unique opportunity to attract customers, establish your credibility and perfect your product before your competitors have time to catch up.
Walk, don’t talk. If you talk and talk about your idea and don't do anything about it, there's more of a chance that your idea will be stolen. The longer you wait, the less inclined you will be to make a start. Action is better than words.
There are some classic South African examples of people talking just a little too much and letting competitors get hold of important information that they used to jump ahead and start a new idea first.
An employee of a cigarette company was chatting around a braai on a Friday evening about how his company was going to launch a new brand of “Lite” cigarettes the next week. Someone from a rival company was also at the braai and heard the story. He quickly slipped away and phoned his head office who jumped into action. Over the weekend, production and printing companies worked round the clock and early in the new week, the rival’s “Lite” cigarette launched around the country just hours before the original company’s planned launch.
When Pick ‘n Pay found out that OK Bazaars were about to launch a range of their own house brands, they rushed to their suppliers and within a very short time launched the now famous “No Name Brands”, before OK could launch theirs.
When you are planning your idea, keep your brain switched on and your mouth switched off! Even if your idea is easy to copy, if you start off strongly and capture the attention of the market, it is often very difficult for anyone to even think of trying to catch up to you.
There's always room for one more. There's an old business wisdom, that says if you see five burger stands on a road, the market can always support one more. If they weren't making money, there wouldn't be five burger stands in one area. So don't worry about your idea being stolen, just do it.
If your idea is a new invention or an innovation of an old one, very few people would be interested in putting the time, effort and money needed in developing it. Inventions and innovations are rarely stolen.
Patents, copyrights and trademarks. If your business idea is based on an invention, innovation or brand new product, you may apply to have them legally protected by law. However, applying for patents, copyrights and trademarks is very expensive and time-consuming.
Applying for a patent for a new invention in South Africa will cost you about R18,000. If you want to protect your invention all over the world, you will have to patent it in every country! This can be done and it is even possible to enter into patent agreements that cover a group of countries at a time. The biggest cost is to get patent protection in the biggest market in the United States of America. Here the patenting process could cost you half a million Rand, before you have even been able to sell any products! As you can imagine, it is mostly only the big established companies that can afford to take out patents. Even then, Patents do not guarantee that you will not be copied. If somebody else can show that they have added to your thinking and improved on your idea, they can patent it as a new idea. Big companies will often keep their patents “fresh” by adding new developments to their inventions and then re-patenting the additions.
