Some manufacturers quite openly copy their designs from other
manufacturers. The products that win the plagerism awards (Golden Knome)
openly are exact imitations of existing products and they break
international conventions of what is ethical or legal to copy.
I was invoved in a case three years ago where a product I designed was
copied by a Chinese manufacturer. The American manufacturer hadn't
listed me on their design protection documents as the originator of the
design which may have invalidated their design protection according to
their attorney. I was more annoyed by my American client than by the
Chinese company who had copied the design. I was paid very little for a
design that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Issues
of plagerism are not always clear cut ethically.
______________________________
R o b C u r e d a l e
Professor, Chair Product Design
College for Creative Studies Detroit
201 East Kirby
Detroit MI 48202-4034
Phone: 313 664 7625
Fax: 313 664 7620
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccscad.edu
______________________________
>>> Gunnar Swanson <[log in to unmask]> 12/16/04 01:11PM >>>
I think to qualify as plagiarism work product cannot be used generally
as a public good; it is the act of pretending that the work is
original
to the plagiarist that makes it plagiarism. As such, Rob's example of
Porsche design being based on earlier Porsche designs is not
plagiarism
by any reasonable definition since a curent model is openly based on
past models.
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