When Does an Idea Become Property?

A few years ago my brother Gannon made a pitch to a nonprofit organization in an effort to convince them to hire his company to redesign their catalog. In an outburst of honesty that is at once both refreshing and disturbing, the representative said, "We can't afford to hire you, but we'll be glad to steal your ideas." Rarely are efforts to steal someone else's hard work so explicitly stated, but it happens more often than we'd like to admit.

Gannon wisely bowed out of that compelling invitation and sold his services to another nonprofit organization.

According to NPR, agency Leo Burnett is claiming credit for pitching Fox on the idea to change several 7-11s to look like "Kwik-E-Marts" from The Simpson's TV show. NPR said a spokesperson for 7-11 claimed, "Anyone could have come up with the idea," because the creative inspiration for Kwik-E-Marts was actually 7-11.

That may or may not be true, but in this case, that "anyone" was actually "someone," and instead of hiring the "someone," they gave the business to "someone else," while moving forward with "someone's" idea.

At least, that is Leo Burnett's story at this time. I don't claim to know for a fact that their story is true.

What do you think? If it is true, does Leo Burnett have a legal claim in this? If so, who should pay? Fox, 7-11, or both? Should pitches include clauses that protect the ideas of the pitching agencies? - Cam Beck

Hat tip to John Keehler for the news and NPR link.

Image courtesy of AnGeL.

Update: Lauren McGehee from The Richards Group, who attended this morning's Likemind, just sent me this AdWeek article about the issue. In case you were wondering, collaboration and conversation are wonderful things.

Comments

[James-h]

Heard this story and my knee-jerk talking-to-the-radio response was: That's why doing spec is dumb. Unless you are paid for it, in full.

Most agencies still naively believe that a great idea can sell an agency. Nope. The 7-11 client put it as bluntly as possible: "Anyone could have come up with the idea". What matters to a client is only what the return is on their investment. And "naively expecting respect" is just that.

[Stan Lee]

I'm sure this kind of thing happens all time. In fact I'm certain of it.

It's only newsworthy because because it's the incredibly over-hyped Simpsons movie.

The marketing push is reminiscent of when the tv series first started. Let's hope the movie lives up to the hype.

[Paul Herring]

I wouldn't be suprised if quite a few agencies end up taking credit for it.

What I do think is worth noting is the execution. I went into a transformed 7-11 and was suprised that I could bue Squishes, Krusty ceral and Buzz cola. Hat's off to the agencies who actually did the work as well.

[Sean Howard]

Ouch. The article ends with "rather than naively expecting respect."

That hurts.

And it's sad that business has gotten to this point for so many of us in the agency world.

Why do we work with people where there is no respect? Fear? Money? Overhead?

I hate that the term naive and respect are being used together... respect SHOULD be expected. That's not naive. That's SANE. But also not necessarily true in our world...