Marshall Yard:

Ever had your unique product stolen? Technology, even with the aid of patent attorneys and copyright law by your side, is, at best, fleeting in today’s hyper-competitive economy. How long do you expect your offering will remain unique? How long before someone steals your idea, or worse, IMPROVES IT!

At our tradeshow exhibit house, we see this at play every day. Not only has our construction method, 6”x6” aluminum “innerspace” beams utilizing fabric graphics, been stolen by our fiercest competitors, but we face the threat of “design theft” in nearly every competitive situation. If a client likes our product, but wants to see if someone else can do it for less money, they trot our design to other vendors until someone says ”yes, we can do that, and we can rent it for a tad less $$$!”

Loyalty is well nigh gone, right? And imagine how frustrating it is for our designers who see their custom booths at an expo, often butchered by producers lacking know-how with certain challenging architectural features.

Most of our clients respect the innovations our designers craft for their unique situation, and they hate to perpetuate a reality that they face as well. One such client told me about his horrendous experiences in his industry: Copycats have stolen a technology that his grandfather created more than 80 years ago - and he constantly strives to stay one step ahead of their grasp.

Like that client, we (our design team members, really) constantly forge onwards-innovating at every turn. Collecting ideas from an array of inspirational avenues, they work feverishly to stay at the edge of display marketing and trade show exhibit designs. With an assortment of new developments rolling-out into custom designs for this FY09Q2, I’m constantly amazed with how they adapt and evolve to fit our client’s needs.