Beware the copycats cooking up plans to steal your ideas

Richard Joseph has discovered to his cost that imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery and has had to battle to protect his company’s products
Victor Foo and Richard Joseph know all about the treat posed by counterfeiters, especially those in China, looking to copy Joseph Joseph’s kitchenware  designs
Victor Foo and Richard Joseph know all about the treat posed by counterfeiters, especially those in China, looking to copy Joseph Joseph’s kitchenware designs
BEN GURR/THE TIMES

When Richard Joseph talks about the tribulations of product development, you would be forgiven for thinking he might be in the business of advanced manufacturing or high technology.

“New products take us three years to bring to market and we keep everything on a need-to-know basis throughout,” he says. “A lot of non-disclosure agreements are signed and we don’t let anyone know the details until it’s absolutely necessary.”

In fact, Joseph Joseph, the company that he set up with his twin Antony in 2003, is in the more prosaic trade of designing kitchenware. The secrecy that surrounds the operation may sound excessive, but it is a result of bitter experience.

As soon as the company began to make inroads with its unconventional products, copycats began