Protecting creative ideas is one of the key challenges in today’s world, where information is spread instantly and access to other people’s work has become easier than ever. For people in creative professions – artists, designers, writers, inventors and others – it is important to understand the basic principles of protecting their intellectual property to avoid illegal use, plagiarism or even loss of rights to their own works.
The scandal between MHP and Vandog Agency
On October 25, 2024, Irina Metneva, the founder of Vandog Agency, published a post in which she publicly accused MHP of stealing the creative idea of a commercial. On the same day, the company conducted a detailed audit, which allowed it to draw conclusions and make important decisions for the future.
The reason for the situation was that MHP had held a free tender for creative ideas. In the future, they decided to completely abandon free tenders. From now on, they will pay for creative ideas from agencies, regardless of whether we take the idea into implementation. This practice will be confirmation of their partnership respect for the work of agencies and their intellectual property.
During the analysis of the situation, we restored the following chronology of events:
In April, MHP launched a tender for the Nasha Ryaba advertising campaign. MHP invited eight agencies to participate in the tender, three of which were ready to participate in the tender on a pro bono basis. In addition to external agencies, Inhouse’s creative team participated in the tender.
Most of the tender meetings were scheduled for May 13, 2024:
– 10:00 – Inhouse team,
– 11:00 – external agency,
– 15:00 – Vandog agency.
Another agency made a presentation 2 days later. At 10:00 Inhouse team presented an idea similar to Vandog’s. The date and time the presentation was created, as well as the date and time of the internal correspondence in which the presentation was sent, confirm that MHP received this idea before the Vandog idea, which was first seen at 15:00. At 11:00, another external agency presented its idea, from which MHP chose the slogan and paid the agency for the right to use it.
In other words, MHP’s internal audit clearly confirmed that the Inhouse team had indeed developed and presented the idea first, which turned out to be similar to the idea of the Vandog team. MHP suggested that if Iryna had any doubts, she should show the correspondence and the presentation at the meeting, confirming the date and time of receipt of the idea.
MHP comments:
“As a company for which “Honesty and Openness” and “Responsibility” are corporate values, we recognize that not all of our actions in this situation were ethical and professional:
- We did not warn the tenderers that Inhouse’s creative team was participating in the tender, although we should have done so as a matter of priority. We apologize to all tenderers for this mistake.
- The comments in the letter from our brand manager were incorrect, we chose a similar idea for testing and this should have been mentioned in the letter.
- At the meeting, we did not immediately warn our Vandog colleagues that we had a similar idea for the internal team.
We are always ready to admit our mistakes where they are and are not afraid to do so publicly. We are sorry that not all of our actions towards the bidders in this situation were in line with professional ethics. We have learned this lesson, and we will make every effort to ensure that our future interaction with agencies is as partnership-based as possible. For the MHP team, the development of the marketing and creative industry is important, based on open dialogue and mutual respect,” MHP said in a statement.
To get an independent opinion on the situation with Vandog, MHP turned to the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (hereinafter referred to as the UAC), which is the largest public association of the Ukrainian advertising industry. Currently, in October 2024, MHP is preparing all the documents related to this case and will hand them over to its colleagues from the UAC in the near future. According to Article 29 of the Law of Ukraine on Advertising, associations of citizens in the field of advertising, such as the UAC, have the right to conduct an independent examination of advertising and provide appropriate recommendations to advertisers, producers and distributors of advertising.
MHP expects that the UAC experts will provide their independent opinion and recommendations. MHP is ready to accept and support the decision, whatever it may be, and act in accordance with the recommendations of the ACC.
Protecting creative ideas is a prerequisite for preserving copyrights and stimulating further development of creativity. By using intellectual property tools, such as copyrights, patents, trademarks and confidential agreements, creators can ensure legal protection and prevent the misuse of their work. An idea can be protected if it is objectively expressed. In addition, awareness of legal aspects helps to avoid possible disputes and loss of control over your ideas. Thus, having a protection strategy in place is an important step for anyone who wants to not only create but also preserve the value of their creative work.
copyright / Idea / intellectual property / Vandog Agency / МХП
