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How to protect my ideas?
Pussum
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Some of you may remember about a month or so ago I was asking for help putting together a server for a company forum I was trying to get set up. Well I finally got all my "ducks in a row" and am now putting the finishing touches on the report I am going to submit. I have one last thing to do, but I am not sure how I am going to go about doing it.
Basically it all boils down to this. The company will approach me and offer me the opportunity to make a little more money if I write up a plan of action for them for whatever problems they may be having at the time. The catch is that for me to get the money they have to actually use the plan I have outlined for them so, they let me do all the foot work, submit my findings in a very detailed 200 page + report, review the information, and then deny it thus preventing me from gaining any monetary increase for my work. Later, usually about six months after the report has been denied, they basically steal the information I have given and implement it into the system anyway without giving credit where credit is due. So because of this fact I have been screwed out of a lot of commission. I am wondering, before I submit this report, is there is any way to copy right my plan of action, my outline, and all the information I will submit so that if they try to deny what I have suggested and then use it six months down the road I can defend myself and get what is justifiably mine?
Is anything like this possible? They have tried to say that anything submitted to them becomes their property, but not once have I had to sign a binding contract that says they can rape my ideas for their own gain. It just seems strange and wrong that they would legally be able to do that. I mean they literally implement my ideas word for word, step by step. Out of the 15 100 page+ reports I have submitted for approval I think they have actually paid me and given me credit for four or five.
Thanks everyone!
Basically it all boils down to this. The company will approach me and offer me the opportunity to make a little more money if I write up a plan of action for them for whatever problems they may be having at the time. The catch is that for me to get the money they have to actually use the plan I have outlined for them so, they let me do all the foot work, submit my findings in a very detailed 200 page + report, review the information, and then deny it thus preventing me from gaining any monetary increase for my work. Later, usually about six months after the report has been denied, they basically steal the information I have given and implement it into the system anyway without giving credit where credit is due. So because of this fact I have been screwed out of a lot of commission. I am wondering, before I submit this report, is there is any way to copy right my plan of action, my outline, and all the information I will submit so that if they try to deny what I have suggested and then use it six months down the road I can defend myself and get what is justifiably mine?
Is anything like this possible? They have tried to say that anything submitted to them becomes their property, but not once have I had to sign a binding contract that says they can rape my ideas for their own gain. It just seems strange and wrong that they would legally be able to do that. I mean they literally implement my ideas word for word, step by step. Out of the 15 100 page+ reports I have submitted for approval I think they have actually paid me and given me credit for four or five.
Thanks everyone!
Pussum on
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The trick would be that they're going to likely want something beforehand... whether that something is a much more vague "summary" report like I mention above, or merely detailed examples of reports to show that you know what you're talking about, you'll need something... but you don't have to fork over that long report without asking for anything upfront.
Basically what you're doing is optioning them the right to use your report. There should be something in your contract that says, "We will pay you $X for the option to use this (this amount may be 0) and if we choose to exercise that option, we will pay you $Y more dollars". If they absolutely demand that you sign over all rights to it before anything, just make sure there is still a clause in the contract that says they will pay you for using it. And make sure you keep a copy of this document and can prove that you did, in fact, write it.
In screenwriting, this usually means keeping timestamps on files and sending yourself a physical copy in the mail that is postmarked and timestamped that you'll never open unless need be. Because even if they have the "rights" to it, if you can prove that they implemented it and didn't pay you for it as stipulated in the contract, you can still bring legal action and get your moneys.
Now I am not a lawyer, but the bad news for you is that I fail to see how copyright would protect you in this situation. The reason it works for screenwriting, as Houk suggests, is that a movie is a derivative work of the screenplay. You've taken one fixed form of expression and derived another one from it. Copyright gives the creator the exclusive right to create derivative works, and to license this right to others. However, simply "doing what it says in some report" is not a derivative work. This is like saying that a copyright violation occurs when you cook something out of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Copyright just doesn't protect this.
Additionally, if you GIVE them a copy of your report, no copyright violation has taken place from them having it, so you can't work that angle.
If you really wanted to protect the general process that you're suggesting, then the legal instrument you could use is a business process patent. Unfortunately for you this is not very practical, since patents take years to get and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The best thing to do is to get a written contract with your company documenting the arrangement stating how you will get paid for your work.
I assume you have some arrangement already, whereby you provide your report and then they pay you if they implement it. Assuming this isn't written down somewhere, you have a verbal contract in place, and verbal contracts are binding. If you can prove that they are using your work and not paying you, in violation of the verbal contract, then you get a lawyer and take them to court for breach of contract. However, if ALL you have is a verbal contract, you've effectively fucked yourself since there's no record of the arrangement and it's going to be very, very hard to prove what the arrangement actually is in court.
What you want is a written contract with the organization detailing what you will provide, and how much they will pay you under what specific circumstances. You may want to pay a lawyer to help draft the agreement so it's binding and there aren't any problems with it. Of course, they can still rape your ideas, but when they do, you take them to court and then you have a leg to stand on. It's not a very good leg, especially if you can't prove that they followed your report to the letter. They can just say "oh, well we had this general idea before he gave us his report and we just implemented it that way." How are you going to prove they didn't?
It's called a contract
This makes good sense.
Another nice trick, which is a little cheaper than court and sometimes works, is to get a letter of demand written by a solicitor. This of course depends on who you are dealing with. If they are routine bastards then nothing outside of a visit to court will work.
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't see how sending something to yourself proves that you created the object inside before then as it doesn't seem that far fetched to send a empty envelope and put the document in it later.
Depending on the nature of the business there may already be a professional association/guild/union that can help you out with the contract, and might even have boilerplate contracts available to their members.
And you really shouldn’t be doing any kind of consulting contingent on them liking your reports and paying you later. You should be charging an hourly rate to produce the report and then getting bonuses based on the results of your work. If your client has suckered you into doing work for free based on how much they like it, your’re getting screwed. Do you think a plumber would repair their toilets with his fees contingent on how much they like his work afterward?
I'm not a lawyer. I would suggest you get one to review whatever contract they want you to sign, or if you have any friends or relatives that are lawyer, see if they'll review it or know someone who will. But I second having that contract signed before you submit anything to them. I know getting a lawyer for something like this might be expensive, but it's better than getting screwed, plus you get experienced advice on the contract that you wouldn't get otherwise
As far as I know and have read, it's basically worthless except for your own peace of mind. I've pretty much only heard it even suggested in regards to screenwriting, and most places I read said it's pretty much never even been tested in court, and would likely not hold up. If you have something that you actually think could be stolen and profited from, you should just spend the $35 or whatever to register it with the copyright office -- or at least with the WGA, though I've heard this is also not really as legally sound as an official copyright registration.
Though in regards to the question here, it's not really even relevant here as Frylock mentioned.
the idea is that you send a sealed registered letter to yourself, and then not open it. the post office stamps a date on it, and you sign and date it when it is received. then, in the case of possible infringement, you open the letter in the court where the judge witnesses the datestamp.
but as frylock said, if you are really serious, just register with the copyright office.
for more info:http://copyright.gov/
all your forms are here:
http://www.copyright.gov/forms/
but since this seems to be more about a process than a document, you may have to go through the patent office. the document describes the process, and the document may be copyrighted, but the process is a patentable thing.
all in all, if you are talking serious money, you might want to actually talk to a lawyer.
Sounds like a legal contract will be written up and signed before I hand anything over. I will be asking for a minimum of $500.00 before I turn in my report. If they use it, they will pay me an additional $500.00. If they don't use it, at least I got paid.
Thanks everyone!