[aitraaz]

Yup, sad but true. I mean, its pretty common for designers to flip through journals or web sites and 'lift' ideas, changing a small detail or two here or there in order to avoid eventual legal problems. Actually, this is pretty rampant, so if you've got a good idea, protect it as much as possible, and be prepared to get it ripped sooner or later. Best defense is always to come up with an even better idea and be careful with it. Cool stuff btw

[glypticmax]

I worked with that factory for years. The Chairmand of the Board at the time came to my studio north of NYC and invited me to visit for a week. Later as things got finalized I asked if I could bring my wife. No problem. Then I asked if I could bring my brother. No problem. So we all got a free trip to beautiful downtown Iittala.
Late in the week, we were to have a meeting with some of the corporate types. I'd spent all my time with the designers and on the factory floor.
A couple of the designers took me aside and told me what the suits had in mind. It was not in my best interest.
So I didn't say much in the meeting. They wanted committments, which could have included moving to Finland. My silence shortened our stay at the factory. But they put us up at a very hotel in Helsinki for 3-4 days. It was delightful.
I continued to work with them as before.
Somebody trying and often succeeding at taking advantage is common place. You're lucky to have learned it so young.
If I were you, I would get some number of catalogs with your design in it and consider it a resume' entry. You won a design contest and your design was later produced. Speak of it in a postive way with potential clients and they will see it in that light.
I would also communicate with them through legal channels to let them know you know what they did. And Chris is right, you might have signed away all rights to your design upon entry in the contest. That is a common way for large companies to get fresh ideas.
Is Oiva Toikka still around? He seemed like a very nice guy. As did all the other designers.

[ivox3]

And Chris is right

No I'm not, .....that was Stuart. Had to make the correction, ..sorry Larry.

* I also think that may be the case though .....

[w i l l]

Dave is right. And so is Pete.

[glypticmax]

And Chris is right

No I'm not, .....that was Stuart. Had to make the correction, ..sorry Larry.

D'Oh!
I always get you smart guys mixed up.

[glebe digital]

Hey, who's stealing my thunder?!?

[ivox3]

[Leonardo]

man... those fry bastards!!

[Aji Enrico]

I can really recommend you follow some of ivox advice, be rather calm and
chose your actions without, or not influenced by, strong emotions.
And the second part, be proud of yourself! Your creations are so good
that companies want to steel it from you! You see you are attractive in the
market, your ideas generates money and has value for costumers
as well. Isn't that good my friend? =) Take it as a complement in other words.

Then again, don't just take it as a complement, take it as a opportunity to
learn something valuable so do something wise about it (without anger!)

Same thing happened to my girlfriend, they stole some of here fashion
collection designs, a famous guy (Sweden) who was suppose to help her
come closer to her dreams.... but hey, she learned something valuable
and has now come along way. If you think about it, in a way, he did help her =)
Just like ivox said, they rob their self of their own opportunities.

It's better to be stolen from than to steal

Like that one =)

Nice design by the way

[ricardo]

I'm a bit of a head strong guy and put myself in a situation like that before, just by defying the client, what I aways do when they cross the line. Did much more of it when I was 20 & something...

I live in Sao Paulo and a customer from Rio started a rendering Job on monday. I was doing 3D at a huge print shop that served advertising agencies, and the guy was working on a large soft drink campaign.

The guy cooked my all week long. On friday he came up with a tale that since the work was not going right he would have to come to Sao Paulo, on saturday for sure - my weekend plans got busted.

On saturday he came. Changed 2 or 3 details and went shopping. There was a huge sale in a furniture/interior design mall that he needed go see. He needed a sofa. The SOAB put me working the weekend to have the company paying for his ticket while he took care of his life.

Boy I got mad. I was using Maya 1.0 in a not so new pizza box with 256mb RAM.

He had a flight 4 hours late back to Rio. I set up the render at some 10KX10K pixels, everything to maximum quality and went to lunch with a smile. When the guy came back the image was less than 10% ready. He got really angry, I told him that it was for print, was huge and there was nothing I could do about it. Just sit and wait. He lost the flight, had to sleep in Sao Paulo and got the image sunday by 4:00pm.

On monday the company owner called me to his office and told that the customer's customer refused the job. I was a free lancer and knew the guy well, so I told him what I did. He later told me he wanted to laugh, but he put me straight then.

A couple of months later I went to Rio and that 'refused' image was spread all over the coast line, every corner post. We never got to court and I never saw the money, but it was worth the fun of seeing that guy's face staring at the monitor all sunday long. And I kept doing 3D work there but was never allowed direct contact with customers again.

Ricardo

[glypticmax]

Thats a great story Ricardo.
I don't have the time to post similar things. Besides I type too much when I try to retell a story.
I am laughing and remembering as I type.
Better to laugh than cry about such things.

I just wish I was in my 20's again, was a 1st prize winner, had my work produced and sold internationally and could take that to my next interview/client/presentation.
I'd be swinging a heavy bat knowing nobody else in the room could document the same accomplishments.

How many people here have been so lucky to be able to put that on their resume'?

[Hervé]

jeeez even toyota...

http://9rules.com/blog/2006/10/toyota-and-9rules/

[glebe digital]

We're all at it to some extent..............'immitation is the greatest form of flattery' ...or something very much like that.

Hey, I see a great render and I want to do one just like it.........I can 'steal' tips, pick some great mxm's from the library..........ok it's different when it's a commercial job and your work is plagiarised, but on anything like that you only have yourself to blame if you didn't read the small print.........or if there was none, then making some a condition of the contract/project.

I'm guessing that most of us work a lot of jobs which don't have a formal contract, but look in many public/private sector jobs [across many disciplines] and you'll find that 'not having a contract' is the exception, not the rule.

I think we should count ourselves lucky that we can mostly avoid a lot of that crap.......I hate it, but you can bet I use contracts for 'most' of the problem jobs...........generally you can smell them a mile off.

[michaelplogue]

I had been looking at a design competition being run by a company in Japan.

http://www.kokuyo.co.jp/award/award2007 ... index.html

I have a concept that I had worked on a while ago that would be perfect for their criteria. But then, I looked at the fine print on the entry form....

For entered works that have been awarded, all rights concerning patents, utility models, designs, trademarks, and copyrights in Japan and all other countries shall belong to KOKUYO Co.,Ltd. The prize money awarded as determined by KOKUYO Co.,Ltd. shall be allocated as the cost for transferring said rights.

Now I'm not so sure about participating. On the plus side, if I didn't compete then my idea would never see the light of day, and I'd never make any money off of it. And if I'd win, I'd have made a nice chunk of change I wouldn't have seen by not competing. On the down side, if it were to win, and they actually made the product and it was very successful, I'd lose out on any royalties....

So, this wouldn't be necessarily a case of having a design stolen, but more of losing any rights to it if it wins a competition.....

Question? Is this sort of thing standard for these sorts of competitions? Any recommendations?

Decisions, decisions.......

[big K]

michael,

i only know this for architectural competitions, where you lose the right on your design (only if you got a price), but the winners start negotiations about who is going to build the building, where you are able to earn more mone (very often it is not the first price winner who builds it later)y. the price money is then taken as the first payment. (so subtracted from the payment you would normally get for the job).
that´s at least how i know this from here in germany.

so from my point of view i would say this is a normal condition.

hope this helps

cheers
michael