Improving on Someone Elses Idea Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, took the concept of Italian Gourmet coffee and built a whole new type of caf culture. Approaches to generating ideas include networking and meeting new people, keeping a journal on problems you or others have encountered and potential ways of solving them, tapping into your hobbies and interests, exploring new ways of thinking about designs and methodologies, traveling and recycling ideas from other regions, and surfing the web, among others. Engaging in these activities will often mean that you learn about ideas that have occurred to other people, whether they have acted on them or not. It can also mean that you will think of ways to implement an existing idea. Indeed, its usually much easier to define a better implementation for an existing idea than to dream up a great idea from scratch. Examples of companies that took the opportunity to improve on and profit from others ideas include Starbucks and Southwest Airlines. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz brought the concept of Italian gourmet coffees to the United States and then disseminated the model around the world. Herb Kelleher, cofounder of Southwest, created a unique culture that is equal parts playful and professional. But is it ethical to steal someone elses idea and improve upon it? Seth Godin is the founder of the web service Squidoo. Godin believes that ideas cant be stolen because rather than getting smaller, ideas get bigger when they are shared. He has suggested that the role of the stealer is not to implement the initial idea, but instead to take responsibility for improving on the idea. The answer to the question of ethics regarding ideas is not a simple yes or no. Instead, there are degrees of ethical behavior involved in taking anothers idea, improving on it, and then profiting from it. While there are legal protections for what is known as intellectual property (IP; patent, trademark, and copyright even within what is legal there are practices that may be unethical. It is easy to argue that if an idea is universal and not suitable for a patent, it may be perfectly ethical for anyone to make use of it. But what about an idea that might be eligible for a patent or trademark, whose originator doesnt intend to apply for these protections? Is it ethical for someone else do to so? As another example, what are the ethics of using material eligible for copyright whose copyright hasnt yet been filed? The law states that the material belongs to the originatorbut copyright cannot protect an idea; it protects only the tangible expression of an idea. As you can see, there are ways in which it may be possible and legally defensible to steal work that does not (yet) have a patent, a trademark, or a registered copyright. Nevertheless, it is often unethical for such material to be taken, produced, and profited from by another.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. What are some reasons why governments have laws protecting IP (patent, trademark, and copyright)?

2. Do you agree or disagree with Seth Godins view that ideas cant be stolen? Is it more ethical to steal an idea if the stealer improves on it? Explain your answers.