Atkins this week becomes the latest-British firm to reveal it has fallen victim to Chinese fraudsters (pages 11 and 20-21). Identity fraud is a scam that is all too familiar to anyone who has had their credit card ripped off in far-flung corners of the globe. But the wholesale cloning of companies is an altogether different proposition. In a profession where intellectual property can hardly be bottled, the creativity and copyright of architects has always been a driver of debate, and this has only increased as emerging economies have begun to produce copycat buildings set against peculiar backdrops that are not as well thought-out or as expensive to build as the original.
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