Innovation or Imitation

Does claiming to have invented something or patenting something or copyrighting something make you an innovator? Are you an innovator when you copy other people’s ideas and methods and call them your own? My thoughts on this were stimulated yesterday when I got a press release entitled:

Mark Verstegen, Internationally Recognized Innovator and Leader in Sports Performance Trainer Media Tour

So I read on with great curiosity wishing to find out what this great innovator in performance had innovated. This is what blew me away: “Mark motivates through education and is the creator of what the public and industry refers to as "Core Training". The founder of Core Training is eager to educate and can set the record straight on what exactly is Core Training. Mark is available to speak on a variety of topics, bringing the awareness to consumers everywhere. “ After all these years of searching for the meaning of core training and trying to understand the origin of the term it was right there in front of me. Of course Mr. Verstegen created it. Wow! He even has a media tour to tell us about it. I wonder what all that stuff we were doing when he was in diapers was called? It could not have been core training because it had not been invented yet! This is so typical of where we are going today, marketing and hype.