We had that with YouLicense.com several times where people just sat on our site and copied it and the model completely. It's very hard taking legal action as it's enough to change one small thing and it's not plagiarism. We always take it as a compliment and say the more the merrier. Nothing much to do unless they really rip off something design wise that resembles your company. (also we're now just offering white labels it lessens the barrier for companies who want to enter the space and that way we can control the situation).

If your business is being copied it is probably because it is successful.

If you have a successful business model, it is because you have a deep understanding of your market and your customers or because you're really lucky.

If you were just really lucky, a competitor could copy your model verbatim and would probably fail. No worries.

If your success was based on providing a valuable service for your market, the only thing a web site communicates is the function of the service and maybe the value to a new customer.

Understanding the market, customer needs, and customer pain points is something that you had to learn over time, and you probably don't even know that you know. I have seen countless web sites echo one value proposition and product/service on the web site, but when I talk to the brains behind the business and the technology, I realize that the value proposition and product/service are only the tip of the iceberg and reflect only a small portion of their knowledge of their market.

It's like copying the user-interface look & feel of a good web site. You can do it, but you won't understand the subtle usability issues that drove the design. When the time comes, you won't be able to evolve the site easily or successfully because when you copy a site you don't also learn how people use the site. Ditto for web sites and business models. Copying is cheap. Evolution without underlying knowledge is very expensive. No worries.

Business models are copied all the time. By many it is regarded as good business practise. It means that the copier companies did not innovate and have the original business idea. You cannot do anything legally about it.

Plagiarism, however, is different. But it depends on what they've plundered. If they've copied elements of your website word for word then you have a case. You can get a lawyer to send a cease and desist letter, threatening legal action. This has two possible outcomes. One is that they'll go and change the wording and some of the design elements. The other outcome is that they'll change nothing. Then you'll have to take them to court.

But if your model is so successful, you'll be likely to have competitors creeping in anyway. It's just what happens. Taking the lead from what Jay (above) says, what you do is innovate further. Your understanding of the market and customer needs puts you in a position to out-compete the wanna-bes. Go real hard at (rather than just evolving) creating new value for your customers and even new customer segments.

Use the relationship you have with your customers to out-innovate and outpace your competitors. Get them to tell you what they want. Use the trust you've established to co-create and put some distance between what your competitors offer and your offer.

Use your round table! Good luck King Arthur!