In this episode we face up to a complex, emotive and sadly ubiquitous challenge: copying. To my mind this is a heady mix of principle and pragmatism, the creative life and commercial reality. The fact is that copying is an inherent part of the pursuit of creativity. Imitation is how we learn and we are all searching for inspiration hoping to excavate our way to something extraordinary and, frankly, something saleable. And yet we require limits, restrictions and processes to marshal true originality and commercial investment to safety.

When faced with a copycat, I often hear the argument that the legal route is too expensive, too unpredictable, too time consuming and frankly out of touch with reality. It can feel that Intellectual Property laws are outdated thanks to a limited number of financially buoyant litigious creatives bringing case law up to date. Given that feeling, many turn to trial by instagram, calling people out, despair, shutting up shop or just quietly soldier on.

Today’s guest offers an enlightening alternative. Sarah Watson, founder of Balineum, is passionate about bathrooms. At Balineum they aspire to bring impeccable style to every bathroom with a particular flair for celebrating classic designs forms and colours. I simply did not know how captivating tiles could be!

Sarah has vision and energy in spades and I am absolutely delighted that she is joining to discuss this tricky topic. It’s a great shame for Sarah that she has experienced copying both flagrant and frequent, but it is a little bit wonderful for the rest of us. This is because Sarah has harnessed her experience, growing knowledge and ability to blend principle and pragmatism to open up the conversation on this topic. She has set up The Plucky Fund to support others facing similar challenges. It is a very special project indeed and in this episode Sarah shares her plans and ideas to shift the culture around copying.

Sarah Watson - Balineum: www.balineum.co.uk
You can contact Sarah here: [email protected]
Read More About The Plucky Fund here: www.balineum.co.uk/pages/dealing-with-product-copies