Intellectual Property Law

Can I protect my intellectual property right of my idea on Internet?

Do I have a property right on an 'original and creative' idea which may bring commercial benefit to anyone who would use it or implement it? If I post such an idea online, how can I protect my rights, if any? Thanks.

Public Comments

1. You could just post it with "Copyright 2006" and your name...although good luck with it being online!
2. Your joking, right.
3. you seem to be to dumb to have an idea...if you put it in your computer and you hook that computer to the web....its public property get use to it...your luck if some doesn't upload terrorist treats addressed to the president and call in the feds. there is no ideas or free thinking allowed.if you dont have the technoligy to protect your stuff then its not your stuff.
4. If you post it--it will be gone--anyone who reads it will be able to use it.
5. You would first register it with: http://www.copyright.gov/ And, then you would have to defend it.
6. if its a product see if you can patent it, also you should talk to a lawyer about steps to do it (protect it).
7. There is no legal protection available for ideas. Period.
8. Actually, this is a fairly interesting problem that is experienced by folks every day of the year. The answer, in the US and most of the world, however, is dependent upon what your idea is about. At a high level, the minute you type out your idea and post it somewhere, you hold the copyright to that written expression of your idea (not the idea itself). However, you can't sue someone for damages or otherwise really enforce the ownership of that copyright without registering your work with the US Copyright Office in the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov). If your idea is also one that is worth of trademark or patent protection, depending on what the idea covers, your disclosure of your idea could, in fact, hamper your ability to obtain those protections - as a trademark is based on actually using the mark... and a patent is based on reducing the idea to an actual item (the specific way you're going to implement your idea, for example). There are ways, of course, to protect your ideas while still getting the benefit of some about of openess to the public - and aren't very involved from a technical perspective (such as encryping a pdf file with your description, etc). But depending on the idea and what it will do, you might end up giving away the farm for free if someone is able to take the concept and run with it. Good luck!