Unfair Competition

• If a new business plagiarizes an existing business' website or other online promotional materials, it can unfairly compete with that business in the online world. Search results may point readers to the plagiarizong site rather than the original site, and readers who find both sites might think the original site is the business that is guilty of plagiarism.
  
  

Extra Expenses

• It can be expensive to fight plagiarism. If your business must go to court over the issue, attorney fees and court costs can add up, and time spent fighting plagiarism is time that is not being spent on improving products or working with customers. In addition, it may be difficult to prove ownership, particularly if your materials were plagiarized online, and you may incur additional expenses attempting to do so. Protecting yourself from plagiarism also takes extra time and money.
  
  

Sales and Reputation

• If someone plagiarizes your new product or a piece of artwork your business sells, it makes it more difficult to sell the original. Consumers may be able to purchase the plagiarized product more cheaply, and the product is no longer unique or difficult to get. In addition, your business' reputation may suffer instead of the plagiarist's if people think that he was the original creator of the product.
  
  

What to Do

• If you discover another business has plagiarized your work, send an email to the plagiarizer asking her to remove the plagiarized content. An attorney can help you format this letter, which is called a cease-and-desist letter. You must inform her that the content is yours and that you will take legal action if she does not comply. If this does not solve the problem, contact the company that hosts the website. You must give your contact information and list all plagiarized items as well as state that you are signing this notice under penalty of perjury. If the host site is American, it must remove the content under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If the host site is not American and refuses to comply, contact Google, Yahoo and MSN and inform them of the problem. They will remove plagiarized content from their search engines.