trademark

Crime at the Gate
Plagiarism.  Copyright infringement.  Theft of intellectual property.  We hear and read about these crimes in the media all the time and don't think they'll ever affect us.  But I can bear witness to the fact that we have people in our midst who seem to think that committing these crimes is no big deal. Setting aside any other criticism I've ever lain at the feet of the watershaping trades, if there's one intolerable problem the industry has, it's that there are people within it who are apparently willing to steal to get ahead. I'm not talking about job-site incidents where materials or tools mysteriously vanish.  That's a real problem, but even more damaging in my eyes is the surprisingly common practice that some people have of representing the efforts of others as their own.  In a phrase, I'm talking about