When piracy is legal Clothing designers often have their creations mimicked by low-end knock-off shops. (more)
Whose hand is in your till?An accountant gone wild pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million. (more)
Embezzlement safeguards 5 ways to protect your business (more)
Special Offer
3 of 3
BACK NEXT
Move fast
Move fast
Then: After X-IT Products invented a foldup emergency ladder, rival Walter Kidde, a large maker of home-safety products, came out with a replica. X-IT sued and won a $17 million settlement (FSB, April 2002).

Now: X-IT, with 2007 sales of about $1 million, will introduce two new models of the safety ladder this year. Co-founder Aldo Di-Belardino says in retrospect he should have applied earlier for his patent. In fact it was not issued until after the trial.

"Kidde tried to rush in their own patent application," he says, "so it would look like we were the ones ripping them off."

More galleries

Last updated April 28 2008: 9:41 AM ET

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.