Thanks, Lucas.
Don't worry, I always let my lawyer evaluate the legal options. Unfortunately, he has advised chasing an operator in Egypt with their very different legal processes is tricky. Cease and desist letters have been very useful in the past in certain countries and will be going out to Egypt, but there is a high chance that he will simply know that there is little risk to him of us managing to take him to task in Egypt.
As for getting the message out. I think this is probably the best route I have so I am taking legal advice and preparing to do this. Happy to share the name of the individual once I have completed that discussion.
Similarly, I will be reporting him to SMRP but if he is also lying about his CMRP status I will be very interested in their response.
As for IP. It may be well protected in principle but I have run consulting projects and also training across 6 continents in the past couple of decades so there will be thousands of potential leak points. In 20 years of running my business I have been plagiarised pretty much every year but have been able to snuff it out. This time is proving a little more tricky.
I once had a call from a very large company in Europe who were complaining at me for not turning up to an in house training course they had paid good money for. This turned out to be from a "training" company who had simply downloaded my profile, got hold of an old agenda and told the company that they were my agent! They thenbrought another trainer in my place on the day! Whilst this all sounds terrible, I ended up forming a good relationship with the customer, went and gave them a health check and they are now my biggest customer. So, the one consistent I have found works is when I manage to reach the poor customers who have been scammed and help them out a bit, they are very grateful. Unfortunately, finding them can be quite difficult.
Again, thanks
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Laurence Dummett
Carcharodon Limited
Harrogate
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-02-2022 08:27 AM
From: Lucas Marino
Subject: What to do when someone copies your material?
Sorry to hear that you are going through this, Laurence. I will be a bit direct in my response (and opinionated as well, just a heads up! lol).
It sounds as though you have eliminated legal recourse in each of your responses. That's completely understandable. However, I wouldn't set my mind on that course of action until you've consulted your lawyer and discussed your options. They may have a supportive answer. Or not. But you won't know unless you give them the opportunity to respond.
I also think a public awareness does not have to be unprofessional or deeply confrontational. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to send a note of caution to my community through your email list, social media groups, and HIS local community. People like being warned of danger. You can achieve this without heavy emotion or argument. That lawyer may have some advice about how to structure this approach as well.
You may not win a full victory in having them cease and desist. Or you may. You can definitely make them wish they had chosen a more professional route, especially if they are in a profession and not just some anonymous freelancer with no chances of ever really succeeding in your world of work anyway.
Reporting them to SMRP protects others as well so don't hesitate there. Make this person defend their poor decisions.
You don't have to answer here if you don't want to but, do you know how they sourced your IP? Was it a former student of yours? If so, do you have a Terms of Agreement or Copyright statement in your course?
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Lucas Marino, D.Eng., PMP, CMRP
Principal Life Cycle & Systems Engineer
CEO, EAST Partnership | Marino Consulting Services, LLC
lucas@eastpartnership.org
www.eastpartnership.org
Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2022 11:10 PM
From: Laurence Dummett
Subject: What to do when someone copies your material?
Thanks Mike, sorry to hear you've had the same.
my IP is wrapped up well and my lawyer is good but we are uk based and the crook passing off my work as his is own is based in Egypt and the Philippines. This makes legal action high risk and expensive.
I think I need to either find another way or grunt and take it. Even naming and shaming has risks and public hair pulling on LinkedIn is never looks good.
I might try reporting him to smrpco but if he's lying about his cmrp status, then I'm not sure what they will realistically be able to do.
thanks again for your advice
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Laurence Dummett
Carcharodon Limited
Harrogate
Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2022 06:44 PM
From: Mike Johnson
Subject: What to do when someone copies your material?
I have, and it absolutely pisses me off badly.
Noria copied and entire platform and then went to town markeing the hell of it with fanstasitic success. I could sue, or I could pass.
What goes around comes around. Ultimately cheaters Do Not Succeed. Their end will come.
I chose to hold my tongue, and legal recourse, provide optimum service to my customers, and dig in and defeat them at each and every opportunity. Time will tell how that works out, but I'm not going away.
Tuff choice you face.
Legal action can put a stop to use of pirated material, but the burden of proof is in your court, and it is possible to spend a lot of money and loose.
Good luck with your choices.
BR
Original Message:
Sent: 5/31/2022 1:01:00 PM
From: Laurence Dummett
Subject: What to do when someone copies your material?
Hi, all, I'd appreciate any advice on this. I have just found that someone has directly copied the full agenda for one of the courses I spent years developing with a colleague and is now advertising it as his own work (right down to the tools I developed, proprietary models, the case studies, the lot) and is inviting people to "his" course online.
Has anyone had experience of this before?
This is not so much as loss of earnings as it is ethics and damaging my own IP/credibility by inevitably being unable to explain properly how our processes and tools work.
The offending "expert" is not even in the same continent as me, but is advertising on line in some regions I also service.
He is also a claiming to be a CMRP, although I can't find him on the register
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Laurence Dummett
Carcharodon Limited
Harrogate
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