Copy Cat vs. Plagiarism - Are they the same thing?

Society places value on creativity, original ideas and innovations. This is true when it comes to technology, music, literature and product development. Ideally, society is structured in a way that those with originality are able to capitalize on it and gain personally. However, in practice, there are many types of copycats out there that will imitate others in order to take credit or capitalize on another’s originality in some way.

On the other hand, this does not mean all copycatting is illegal. There is a certain level of imitation which the law allows, as long as it does not veer into what is considered an infringement of another’s intellectual property rights. When this does happen this is known as plagiarism. Therefore, it may be a good idea to have an understanding of the difference between being a copycat and plagiarism.

Different levels of imitation

In a broader view and without a legal context, being a copycat and plagiarism are basically the same thing. Both are essentially imitating another in some way or another. However, the practical difference between copycatting and plagiarizing lies in the degree of imitation you may be engaging in.

In order to rise to the level of plagiarism you would need to be engaging in imitation up to a certain level of a copyrighted, trademarked or patented work where it would legally constitute infringement of another’s intellectual property right. One way to look at it is viewing plagiarism as a more extreme version of being a copycat.

How do you know when imitation becomes plagiarism?

It may be important in many situations to understand when imitation crosses the line between being a copycat and actually committing plagiarism. This is determined through a legal view, deciding whether or not the law sees a certain act as constituting infringement of intellectual property. At times where this line exists is quite clear while at other times it is not so much. In some of these cases, it requires a court case to determine whether or not a person is plagiarzing another, or in other words infringing upon intellectual property rights.

Types of intellectual property

In order to determine when being a copycat becomes plagiarism you will need to understand intellectual property law and how it operates. The first thing to realize is there are several different types of intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, franchises, trade secrets and digital assets. Each of these types of intellectual property provide the rights holder to varying levels and ways of protecting these rights.

Patents

Although inventors can many times imitate another type of product or technology to a certain degree, there is a point where an inventor can go beyond being just a copycat and into infringing on another inventor’s intellectual property. However, in order for an inventor to claim intellectual property rights to an invention, he or she must have applied for what is called a patent. This type of intellectual property allows an inventor an exclusive right to an invention or specific aspects of an invention.

A patent can apply to many types of inventions and to various aspects of an invention. This may include patent protection for designs, processes, physical inventions or improvements to a pre-existing type of product, service or technology. If a copycat imitates a certain invention or aspect of an invention that is patent-protected he or she is risking future legal issues.

On the other hand, patent protection is not something that is in place automatically upon creation of an invention or aspect of an invention. In order to obtain patent protection an inventor would have to register with the relevant government agency. For the U.S. you would need to go through a patenting process with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Other countries will have their own rules and agencies for patents.

Copyrights

Another form of intellectual property protection which is aimed at discouraging and preventing copycats from infringing on intellectual rights is copyright. This type of intellectual property right protects creative works of many types, such as music, writing of many types, film, advertisement content and more.

Copyright also enables the copyright holder to license their copyrighted material to others. Licensing copyrighted works means to authorize another to use the copyrighted work. These licensing agreements can vary in scope from use for only one single advertisement or full comprehensive licensing where the licensee can use the creative work in any form and infinite numer of times. Essentially, with a licensing agreement a copycat can legally imitate another with permission. However, imitation of copyrighted works without a licensing agreement can risk future lawsuits for infringement.

Trademarks

A copycat that imitates a logo or some other type of symbol of another may also be risking an intellectual property infringement lawsuit. This type of intellectual property right is referred to as trademark. Like patents, obtaining trademark protection requires registering with the USPTO. A trademark, usually either a logo or brand, is owned by one company and prohibits others from using the trademark content. Even a phrase can be registered for trademark protection as long as you are using the phrase for commercial purposes.

Franchises

A franchise is another type of intellectual property which is essentially an all-encompassing license a company will grant to other companies and individuals to utilize a comprehensive business model, enabling the licensee to operate a business under the franchise banner. This can include license to use the franchisor’s name, trademark and business processes. Franchisees will purchase the franchise license from the franchisor.

Essentially, a franchise license allows a copycat company to legally imitate an entire business model for monetary gain. This type of business model is common in the restaurant industry as well as other sectors. Some famous franchises include McDonald’s, Subway, United Parcel Service (UPS), Starbucks and many more.

Trade secrets

Another type of intellectual property that is specific to commercial enterprises are trade secrets. Like trademarks, trade secrets are intellectual property that is owned by a business of some sort. Trade secrets refer to processes or practices that is not publicly known and is kept guarded within the company.

Many times trade secrets are created through a company’s internal research and development initiatives. In order to maintain the market advantage of trade secrets, a company must take proactive measures such as having employees sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This is an attempt to prevent copycat competitors from using these trade secrets for their own businesses, therefore neutralizing the market advantage of a trade secret.

Unintentional vs intentional plagiarism

Although plagiarism is something that should be avoided for legal reasons, as has been discussed previously, not all acts of plagiarism are malicious. Many times plagiarism occurs unintentionally. Essentially this means a creator or inventor may have taken influence from somebody else’s intellectual property but had inadvertently crossed the line between being a copycat and plagiarism.

On the other hand, there are many who commit intentional plagiarism. This means that the copycat had intentionally plagiarized a work and was likely hoping to hide the fact that they had infringed upon somebody else’s intellectual property.

The following are a few famous examples of copycats that turned out to be alleged plagiarists. However, it is not always clear whether the plagiarism was intentional or not. Nor is it always clear that the copycatting did indeed rise to the legal level of plagiarism or infringement on intellectual property since many of these instances were never decided in the court of law.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Many may be dismayed that one of the most important civil rights leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely believed to have committed plagiarism several times. This even included his famous “I Have a Dream” speech which he gave at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. Many believe that King had plagiarized a part of the speech from an uplifting speech given by Archibald Carey, Jr. at the 1952 Republican National Convention. The part of King’s speech in question was the finale which was similar to Carey’s, however it was never legally determined if King’s copycatting did indeed legally rise to the level of infringement or whether it was intentional.

Long after King’s assasination in 1968, a group of scholars began to examine theories that King had plagiarized his doctorate dissertation. King earned a doctorate degree in systemic theology from Boston University in 1955. The dissertation in question compared two different theologians: Henry Nelson Weiman and Paul Tilich. At the conclusion of the research conducted by the university, it was found that King plagiarized about a third of his dissertation. Of course, this study was conducted long after King’s death so he did not have a chance to defend accusations of plagiarism or provide insight into whether or not it was intentional.

John Milton

Best known for his epic poem “Paradise Lost,” John Milton faced accusations of plagiarizing multiple authors and works in his creation of the epic poem written in 1667. The accusor was Scottish scholar William Lauder who published a number of pieces in the Gentleman’s Magazine. In these essays Lauder argued that Milton plagiarized almost all of his epic poem from multiple authors who at that time had already died.

Lauder claimed that Milton was a copycat that stole from various obscure poems. One poem, “Adamus Exul,” was written by Hugo Grotius in 1601. Another poem that Lauder used as an example of Milton’s plagiarism was the 1633 poem by Andrew Ramsay titled “Poemata Sacra.”

However, in the end, it turns out that Lauder was, in fact, the copycat plagiarist and not Milton. Lauder, who was embittered at his lack of career success, had inserted whole portions of Milton’s poem into the citations of the obscure poems in order to portray Milton as a plagiarist. It turns out that Lauder’s copycat scheme did not benefit his career since he ended up fleeing to Barbados and dying in obscurity.

Alex Haley

Another famous case involving accusations of plagiarism revolved around journalist and writer Alex Haley. The author was most famous for writing Roots: The Saga of an American Family which was supposed to be based on historical research into his own family’s history. Haley claims he traced his ancestry in the book published in 1967 to Kunta Kinte, an African man brought to North America forcibly as a slave in the 18th century. The book was eventually made into a highly successful television miniseries while earning Haley a Pulitzer Prize.

But, following the book’s release to the public several authors and historians began to challenge the accuracy of the story. In fact, one author, Harold Courtlander, sued Haley for plagiarizing his 1967 novel titled The African. The case eventually made it to court with Courtlander’s lawyer presenting evidence of the similarity of passages between the works of Haley and Courtlander. However, in the end, the two parties eventually agreed to an out-of-court settlement and Haley admitted to plagiarizing a few paragraphs of Courtlander’s novel.

Avoiding unintentional plagiarism or infringement of intellectual property

Given the legal issues described in this article you would be best-served if working on some type of creative work or invention to make sure you are not unintentionally plagiarizing or infringing on another’s intellectual property. This means researching thoroughly any creations or inventions that might even remotely resemble what you are trying to achieve. Also, when it comes to writing there are numerous software applications that can help with detecting potential plagiarism. It is better to be thorough now than to be dealing with a legal dispute later.