Best way to protect personal Ideas

Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best

Get a patent lawyer.

DaveL


"wavelength" wrote in message
...
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best

Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best

Get youtrself one of those computational notebooks, the bound kind with
numbered pages. Describe your idea, write it down. Have someone who doesn't
have an interest in the idea read it, note that he has "read and understood"
the document, then date and sign it.
There are other cheap things you can do as well -- registered letter containing
the information to a disintersted party, and so on, but you want to establish
the date.

If you continue to work on the idea and develop it, you have (or used to have)
one year from the date of first public disclosure to file for a patent. Make
very sure anyone you talk with about your invention knows you're discussing it
in confidence, or that public disclosure thing can bite you.

It used to be, and probably still is, that the first to do the invention, NOT
the first to file a patent application, is the rightful owner.

It depends on what your idea is.

If it's a work of art (includes music, writings, etc), then you would
copyright it.

If it's an invention (which could be a physical thing, or a process) then
you would patent it.

Copyrights are very simple since by creating it, you are technically the
copyright owner (this is U.S. law, I can't speak to any others), though to
have enforceable power of that, you'd want some sort of proof. Registering
the copyright is the easiest way and that's pretty cheap.

Patents, which is what you're probably after, are a different story
altogether. You need a patent attorney and a few thousand dollars to patent
(last I checked, though I could be wrong).

Of course, the cheapest and easiest way of making sure that nobody else
steals your idea is not to tell anyone else what it is.

If you think the idea is worth money and you don't have the money to create
and market it, then get a patent and then you can sell the rights to others
to use your idea.

Pete
"wavelength" wrote in message
...
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best

wavelength wrote:
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best



The word copyright, patent, and trademark's all spring to mind. There is a very
significan industry dovoted to each one. Look it up. Google to start.

MorituriMax wrote:
wavelength wrote:
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best



The word copyright, patent, and trademark's all spring to mind. There is a
very
significan industry dovoted to each one. Look it up. Google to start.

Damn, I couldn't spell for **** in that post. Trying again..

The words copyright, patent, and trademark's all spring to mind. There is a
very significant industry devoted to each one. Look it up. Google to start.

On Sat, 29 May 2004 15:45:44 -0500, "wavelength"
wrote:

Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

The general answer is publish or patent. Patent the idea if it is
likely to have commercial value and and can be protected. This is
risky--patents cost a minimum of around $1000 and none of my six or so
have any value at all. Publishing depends on the nature of the idea.
The Los Alamos National Archive would be most effective for gaining
credit with an authentic date. They are instituting a new policy for
what can be published: http://xyz.lanl.gov/new/#endorsement

For certain kinds of ideas, a copyright may be useful.

A very simple approach to protecting javascripts is to entangle the
script with a PGP signed message which has been stamped by a third
party. The protected page from which the following is snipped is:
http://home.rochester.rr.com/jbxroads/4cube.html
Look at the source code.

html
head
titleN-teract-4/title
/head
script
/*
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
################################################## ######
#
# The text of this message was stamped by
# stamper.itconsult.co.uk with reference 0015319
# at 21:55 (GMT +0100) on Friday 17 April 1998
#
# For information about the Stamper service see
# http://www.itconsult.co.uk/stamper.htm
#
################################################## ######

May be freely redistributed, if no charge is made for the program.
The source code may be used and modified for personal and educational
use,
but incorporating all or a substantial portion of the code into a
commercial product is prohibited.

*/
function cycle(w,y,x) {
u = c[x] ;
c[x] = c[y] ;
c[y] = c[w] ;
c[w] = u ;
document.images[x].src = c[x] ;
document.images[y].src = c[y] ;
document.images[w].src = c[w] ;
}

c = new Object() ;
c[0] = "a.gif" ; c[1] = "b.gif" ; c[2] = "c.gif" ; c[3] = "d.gif" ;
c[5] = "e.gif" ; c[6] = "f.gif" ; c[7] = "g.gif" ; c[8] = "h.gif"
;
/*

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3i
Charset: noconv
Comment: Stamper Reference Id: 0015319

iQEVAgUBNTfBwYGVnbVwth+BAQFn+Qf7BeQVWDXQFRisHzjSAy 0doSU7tDLA3lPv
jAfPl/OUsQKSwMwi81hTtFbfB+GHPVZRiGRoFnj4oPnIVQoQJqtgPCwK tVohRuBm
pRiaVcb99mUleLRPmHwLoe/Uefl/ykoiNJD1xTlESeSAHjMWCN+Vep1e8UUm4mKd
vNRV4WwJK20i4rU4FSzmcQaRYR6K6Bzzoz/kncqMulcUHdrGivZjb7kIK9l94Bjm
/fwDWYYonBmqozBksBKLpjkpnyQwsKkzNBNBp0B6Yr7lQ3MnfMm FlTcJwuz1jdWI
hPsHYnh3UM94kE3poclRCcdnqQWemImI8xYvlyHSdL8a+MX9Ua 2r+w==
=k3ki
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
*/
/script
body (end of snippet from web page)

Perhaps there is a variation on this approach you may find useful.

John Bailey
http://home.rochester.rr.com/jbxroads/mailto.html

DaveL wrote in message
...
Get a patent lawyer.

DaveL


"wavelength" wrote in message
...
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect
so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best




What if ya dont have enough money to pay for the lawyer
...................................? :|

wrote in message
news.com...
It depends on what your idea is.

If it's a work of art (includes music, writings, etc), then you would
copyright it.

If it's an invention (which could be a physical thing, or a process) then
you would patent it.

Copyrights are very simple since by creating it, you are technically the
copyright owner (this is U.S. law, I can't speak to any others), though to
have enforceable power of that, you'd want some sort of proof. Registering
the copyright is the easiest way and that's pretty cheap.

Patents, which is what you're probably after, are a different story
altogether. You need a patent attorney and a few thousand dollars to
patent
(last I checked, though I could be wrong).

Of course, the cheapest and easiest way of making sure that nobody else
steals your idea is not to tell anyone else what it is.

If you think the idea is worth money and you don't have the money to
create
and market it, then get a patent and then you can sell the rights to
others
to use your idea.

Pete
"wavelength" wrote in message
...
Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect
so
that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best





What if ya dont have any money for a patent attorney
..............................? :|

wavelength wrote:

wrote in message
news.com...

It depends on what your idea is.

If it's a work of art (includes music, writings, etc), then you would
copyright it.

If it's an invention (which could be a physical thing, or a process) then
you would patent it.

Copyrights are very simple since by creating it, you are technically the
copyright owner (this is U.S. law, I can't speak to any others), though to
have enforceable power of that, you'd want some sort of proof. Registering
the copyright is the easiest way and that's pretty cheap.

Patents, which is what you're probably after, are a different story
altogether. You need a patent attorney and a few thousand dollars to

patent

(last I checked, though I could be wrong).

Of course, the cheapest and easiest way of making sure that nobody else
steals your idea is not to tell anyone else what it is.

If you think the idea is worth money and you don't have the money to

create

and market it, then get a patent and then you can sell the rights to

others

to use your idea.

Pete
"wavelength" wrote in message
...

Hiyas All ,

Lets assume that you have a original idea that you want to protect

so

that no one steals it from you and that you get credit for it - AS YOU
SHOULD !. How is the best way to protect your idea ?

Best






What if ya dont have any money for a patent attorney

Then you need to define "steals" and "credit". First, do
you want to make money from the idea? Build a
proof-of-principle model (that doesn't give away the idea)
and show it to somebody who can mass-market it, AFTER they
sign a non-disclosure agreement. Then, you can get royalties
if you first have a decent contract lawyer look over
anything you have to sign subsequently. Showing the lawyer
the dingus and the non-disclosure should pique his interest
and get him to do the work "on credit". Don't worry about
patents; the mass-marketer can screw around with that if
they want.

If you want credit for thinking the idea up, just
copyright it. Cheaper than patents.

Mark L. Fergerson