“Absolutely powerless”: Business owners are having their ideas stolen, but what can they do about it?

After seeing her product stolen and sold by a multinational healthcare company, Amanda Clark says she felt “absolutely powerless”.

“I remember going to an IP lawyer, who took one look at the size of the company and said: ‘Do you really want to pursue this?’,” she says.

“I knew if they launched any sort of legal defence, I couldn’t match it.”

Clark is the founder of nutrition and weight-loss consultancy Great Ideas in Nutrition, and in 2006 had released a product called Portion Perfection, a book and plate combo which helped dieters better portion their meals.

The founder was showing off the product at a trade show when a representative from the multinational approached her and asked if they could collaborate on creating a version of the product for the larger company.

“They said they absolutely loved it, but afterwards no one got in touch. Eventually, they told me while they were thinking about doing something, they decided against it. So at the time I just moved on,” she says. Read more

Dominic Powell - Smart Company - 19 Oct 2018