Worrying about idea theft

[Brian Sheridan]

I have my muse idea ready for testing on GoogleAdworks.

My concern is that I put the idea out there on the net and someone else steals it and produces the product.

Do you have your ideas Registered or Copywritten?

Brian

[jetpacklife]

Nope. If it's that original and groundbreaking, you might not want to test market it that way.

That said, ideas are not worth as much anymore (sorry!). It's the execution that counts.

Look at http://halfbakery.com/ for free ideas.

[searstower]

I agree with Jetpacklife.

I don't worry about hiding my plans any more because there are so few people out there who have not just the brains to realize that it's a good idea, but also have the guts to run with it and the money to put where there mouth is.

Think about it. How many times have you heard someone say after the fact "Oh, I thought of that idea years ago."

Run with it!

Rebecca

[onemoretry]

I agree with what's been said on ideas being on the cheap, but I also believe that a good attitude to have about intellectual property is the "fruit tree" mentality. Your ideas are the fruit on the tree, not the tree itself. In other words, you aren't a one-trick pony, with one "big idea" to your credit that will make or break you if it succeeds, fails, or is stolen by someone without a tree. You've got as many ideas as you have patience and time to grow.

[mdfloyd@gmail.com]

Actually, there is no such thing as a copyright on ideas. You can only copyright the expression of an idea.:)

[MiniBlueDragon]

You can always package-up the full original idea and mail it to yourself via registered/signed-for post... When it arrives keep it sealed shut and file it away for emergencies.

By doing the above you can effectively prove that you are the original author and owner of the idea in a court of law because it's all signed, dated and unopened from the day you created it. :)

[Vacman]

Yea...

I took an engineering class and the professor told the class that when he had a great idea he would jot it down on a postcard and then mail it to himself.

He said that works because it gets date stamped by the government and that supposedly is enough proof to show that it was your idea at that time.

I'm just now thinking about it though....

How is that proof though?

Couldn't someone send a blank post card to themselves and then write an idea at a later time and then claim it was theirs?

Same with an unopened package.

What's to say you didn't just send a package to yourself, and then at a later date surgically open it up, insert the documents "claiming" you thought of the idea and then reseal the package?

How would these hold up in court?

Hmmmm.... :cool:

[PhilnCedarPark]

The mail-it-to-yourself stuff is an old wive's tale. Bag in the Jurassic era I was an early employee @ Vignette - you simply kept notebooks with dates and times. If you are seriously worried, a good overview is at the Inventor's Hall of Fame:

http://www.invent.org/workshop/3_1_0_how_to_patent.asp