top of page
Search

How to Protect Your Ideas

Writer's picture: Keith FraserKeith Fraser

 It’s an interesting subject you know. How to Protect your ideas. That’s because there is misconception out there that ideas are not Intellectual Property. And, as a result, they don’t really belong to the person who has the idea.  Thus, if you disclose your idea to anyone that anyone is then free to take your and run with it.

 

This misconception has its roots, I think in Copyright law.  With respect to intellectual property that is subject to copyright protection (that is, works of creative expression such as books, art, music, photography) the number one requirement for copyright protection is that your original creative work must be fixed into some tangible media.  Your screenplay must be written down, your movie must be filmed, your song must be recorded.  If you just have an idea for a story, a movie or a song, well, in the eyes of the copyright office, you have nothing.

 

There is also this notion that in America, ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s okay to dream, but in this country we only reward those who act on their dreams. If you’ve got a great idea, that’s great. Now do something about it.

 

My attitude is that your ideas – be they ideas for a business, a product, an idea for a television series- these are your intellectual property. And as such, you should take steps to protect your ideas.  And these steps must take place at the idea stage, as you begin to commercially exploit that idea and bring that idea to fruition.

 

And that usually means employing Non-Disclosure Agreements.

 

If in taking your idea from the idea stage to the finished product stage you must disclose it to someone else. Be they investors, producers, manufacturers, etc. Then you must have that person sign a non disclosure agreement or NDA

 

Such an NDA would take the form of a simple contract whereby you state that the ideas you are disclosing are your intellectual property and that you are disclosing them to this person solely for the purpose of investing in or producing the project or manufacturing the product, whatever the case may be and that they agree not to use or otherwise disclose the information in any other way and not without your consent.

 

In other words, with an NDA you protect your intellectual property with a contract. If you pitch an idea for a movie to a movie studio pursuant to an NDA and the studio thereafter takes your idea without cutting you in, so to speak, and makes a movie with it, that studio has breached the contract. And you will be able to bring a breach of contract action against them and recover your damages, which in this case could be a share of any revenues the movie makes.

 

An NDA is a fantastic way to protect your ideas. Make sure that before you disclose the idea, to anyone, have that person sign an NDA.

 

Now. That brings me to the problems with NDAs.

 

-You may not feel comfortable asking. Well, I keep coming back to this, but remember, this is your valuable property you are dealing with here. Treat it accordingly. And ask them to sign an NDA. 

 

-Often, the circumstances surrounding your pitch may not be conducive to getting an NDA signed. e.g., You are out and about and you just happen to find yourself in an impromptu meeting with someone who wants to hear your idea and is in a position to develop your idea. This is the classic elevator pitch or cocktail party situation.

 

Obviously, you are not going to be carrying around a stack of NDAs for every Tom, Dick and Harry, you meet at your networking events.

 

Or are you? This is actually where you have an assist from technology.  Download E-gree either from the App Store or Google Play and with it it you can easily and quickly create and sign NDAs on the fly wherever you may be. Problem solved.

 

-Another reason why it may be problematic to get an NDA signed is that the person you are pitching refuses to sign one.

 

If so, what do you do? My general recommendation here is to not disclose the idea if they refuse. And tell them that.

 

Similar to what I just mentioned, when you say something like “I must insist”, it has the effect of informing the other party, the producer in our example, that 1. You know your rights; and 2. You yourself place a very high value on your idea and the other person may be thinking, perhaps, I should as well.

 

Notwithstanding all of that, it is very common that a person will refuse to sign an NDA. Especially in the entertainment field.  If you are pitching an idea to a studio or producer, the producer will explain to you that he has hundreds of meetings and hears hundreds of pitches and that very often many of those pitches will contain similar and even the same ideas. He will then say, if I choose a project over another similar one, then the person whose idea I did not go with, will erroneously believe that I breached their NDA.

 

The fact is, you want to pitch your idea, the person who wants to hear it is in a very powerful and keen position to take your idea and bring it to fruition, you don’t want to lose the opportunity and push the requirement of the NDA.

 

So, what do you do?

If you decide that you will go forward with the meeting, do so.  Then afterwards document what was discussed in a follow up email to the producer/investor whoever it may be.

 

This would take the form of a quick email thanking the producer for the meeting: It was great to meet you. Thank you for taking the time today to discuss my idea for [provide a few details about the idea]. I understand your policy about not signing an NDA, and that’s fine, I just want to again confirm, as I told you in the meeting, that I consider my idea to be my intellectual property and that you understood that I was disclosing it to you for the sole purpose of you considering investing in or developing the idea and that you would not use the information discussed in our meeting for any other purpose.

 

Send that out. The producer will likely not respond. What this does is provide evidence regarding your intent in disclosing it, your understanding that he would not take the idea without your consent etc. In other words, what this is written evidence of the existence of an oral agreement.

 

You have protected yourself as best you can under these circumstances.

 

So, that in a nutshell are some ideas on how you can best protect your ideas. Check out the You & I, Esq. Youtube channel and please Like and Subscribe.

 

 

 

4 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Intellectual Property is Forever

It’s not that life is short, as Seneca reminds us, it’s that we waste a lot of it. And why do we waste this precious resource? It’s...

The Poor Man's Copyright

As the name suggests, a Poor Man’s Copyright is supposed to be a cheap and easy way to establish copyright protection. You are the...

The Content Economy

You and I, Esquire is the place where You and I explore the world of intellectual property, its ever-increasing importance and value to...

Comments


© 2020 The Fraser Firm, P.C.

  • Twitter
bottom of page